“It was fun in a green kind of way,” said Ross Burnett.
Green was certainly the word of the day at the Yukon Orienteering Championships near the Lobird subdivision in Whitehorse on June 7.
“Green” was often accompanied by the word “thick.”
Eighty-four participants were challenged by thick woods at the first installment of the championships — the middle distance event — at the event hosted by the Yukon Orienteering Association (YOA).
“This particular area behind Lobird Park on the Copper Ridge map looks fairly green, so people will have to take that into consideration, that there is a lot of alder out there,” said YOA president Afan Jones. “And there are some fine features, some fine contour detail, you have to read. So experts have to contend with that.
“You can see from the sweat and scratches, they did go through a lot of bush.”
The YOA will next hold the sprint course championships on June 14 and the long course championships on June 21.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com
Top-10 results:
Novice
1st Bob Sagar/Meara Kaswandik — 14:08
2nd Stian Langbakk/Philippa McNeil — 14:15
3rd Juno Hanatani/Miki Hanatani — 15:46
4th Robin Muzzerall — 15:55
5th River Pearson/Anna Pearson — 17:34
6th Kate Tobler/Pat Tobler — 17:45
7th Stephanie Connolly/Ciaran Connolly — 19:16
8th Aydri Mosquera/Linda MacKeigan — 19:19
9th Annie McNeil/Heidi Rumscheidt — 20:09
10th Aurelia Koh/Iliana Koh — 20:12
Intermediate
1st Jirina Foltysoua/Doreen Bicknell-Ross — 24:52
2nd Jakob Nemcek — 25:50
3rd Beth Hawkings — 30:54
4th Kasyan Green/Christie Ma — 32:12
5th Lara Melnik — 33:34
6th Elias Sagar — 34:42
7th Jamie Kenyon/Annette Willer — 37:05
8th Helen Slama — 39:18
9th Caroline Morrow/Glenda Koh — 43:47
10th Ayla McDonald — 46:37
Advanced
1st Barbara Scheck — 36:26
2nd Judith Van Gulick — 47:09
3rd Georgina Pearson — 47:52
4th Nate Wood — 52:21
5th Karen McKenna — 54:29
6th Jim Hawkings — 69:08
7th Doug Hitch — 70:33
8th Craig Brooks — 72:08
9th Kasyan Green/ Christie Ma — 75:22
10th Girouard family — 78:20
Expert
1st Forest Pearson — 30:02
2nd Leif Blake — 32:45
3rd Brent Langbakk — 33:47
4th Ross Burnett — 40:54
5th Kendra Murray — 44:24
6th Pia Blake — 46:08
7th Gerry Willomitzer — 48:21
8th Erik Blake — 50:17
9th Emma Sherwood — 50:21
10th Caelan McLean — 62:21