If only there was a race on Monday for Brent Langbakk to win, then he could have made it four wins in four days.
The first installment of the Yukon Orienteering Championships took place Wednesday at the dog ski trail at Mt. McIntyre with 75 orienteerers taking part.
Wednesday’s segment, the sprint distance competition, featured four courses to choose from, ranging from novice to long advanced. The middle distance and the long distance events of the championships will take place over the next two Wednesdays.
Langbakk, who has competed at the World Orienteering Championships as a member of Team Canada five times, took first in the long advanced field, beating out juniors Colin Abbott, who came second, and Lee Hawkings in third.
“It had variety in route choice, there was a lot of change in direction - those are the qualities you look for in a sprint course,” said Langbakk. “They made good use of the area available to them.”
Making the win extraordinary, Langbakk won the Whitehorse Adventure Run (W.A.R.) on Sunday with partner Katherine Scheck, who took sixth in the long advanced field on Wednesday. Just the night before Wednesday’s sprint, Langbakk topped the list at Athletic Yukon’s weekly Intersport Five Kilometre Run/Walk, finishing ahead of second place’s Keith Thaxter and third place’s Tom Ullyett, both giants in Whitehorse’s running community.
Wednesday’s event doubled as a fundraiser for the Yukon Orienteering Association’s junior competitors, to help fund trips to major competitions such as the national championships, the North American championships and even the Junior World Championships being held this July in Denmark, which will be attended by Abbott and Hawkings, both of whom brought home top-50 results at last year’s.
“Junior orienteering team members put on a great sprint race last night with leadership form their coach, Brent Langbakk,” said Afan Jones, winner of the short advanced course. “Juniors successfully designed a varied course in a new area between dog ski trail and Hamilton Boulevard that was ideally suited to the sprint course discipline.”
“I think that’s one of the best sprint courses I’ve run in quite a while,” said Langbakk. “They did a really good job - I’m really impressed.”
Results
Novice (1.4 km)
1st Kaitlynn Mitchell - 22:48
2nd Taylor Mitchell - 24:13
3rd Elias Sagar - 25:15
4th Tifanni Fraser - 39:13
5th Pelly Vincent-Braun - 39:57
Intermediate (1.5 km)
1st Pia Blake - 10:57
2nd Leif Blake - 14:01
3rd Cheylsea Mitchell - 15:15
4th Sherri Cooper - 17:37
5th Miko Miyahara - 20:31
Short advanced (1.5 km)
1st Afan Jones - 13:22
2nd Kerstin Burnett - 16:43
3rd Caelan Mclean - 17:06
4th Barb Scheck - 20:24
5th Karen Mckenna - 20:48
Long advanced (3.1 km)
1st Brent Langbakk - 17:47
2nd Colin Abbott - 18:31
3rd Lee Hawkings - 22:11
4th Pearson Forest - 23:00
5th Ross Burnett - 23:55
Group novice (1.4 km)
1st Bruce Wilson/Katelyn Horte - 19:43
2nd Luanda Pronovost/Emily Dessureault - 21:53
3rd Lori LaRochelle/Darcy LaRochelle - 22:55
4th Mary-Beth Sennet/Ross Sennet - 36:10
5th Tammy Allen/Jason Adams - 36:17
Group Intermediate (1.5 km)
1st Julianna Scramstad/Megan Haddock - 17:38
2nd Natalie Hynes/Perry Hynes - 19:48
3rd Tracey Taylor/Terry Boone - 20:04
4th Dave Rogers/Carole Rogers - 21:14
Group short advanced (1.5 km)
1st Karen Stafford/Lara Melnik - 38:56
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com