The Whitehorse area’s awesome orienteering terrain and its accessibility have made the Yukon Orienteering Championships much more competitive.
With about a half-dozen top Canadian juniors in town to train on local courses for the Junior World Championships, competition was fierce at the sprint distance event of the Yukon Championships in the MacPherson area on Wednesday.
Achieving the fastest time on the long-advanced course was Vancouver’s Graeme Rennie, who is training for his third junior world championships.
“It’s been great, and certainly difficult,” said Rennie. “In Vancouver we do a lot of urban orienteering, on university campuses and in city parks. So for me it’s good to get out here into the woods. It’s so close to town with these great forest maps. The more challenging terrain prepares us better for competitions in Europe.
“If I was in Vancouver right now, I’d be running in Stanley Park and it would be as realistic or as helpful.”
Locals Lee Hawkings and Kendra Murray, who were the fastest in their divisions on Wednesday, will also be on Team Canada for the junior worlds.
The next installment of the Yukon Championships will be the middle distance event on June 8, meeting at the Annie Lake Recreation Centre. The championships will wrap up with the long distance competition on June 22.
This summer, Whitehorse will be hosting both the Western Canadian Championships and the Canadian Championships over consecutive weekends in July.
The Junior World Orienteering Championships will take place this July in Wejherowo, Poland.
RESULTS
F12 (1.6 km)
1st Thomson, Amanda - 15:54
2nd Savannah Cash - 21:00
3rd Hannah Jirousek - 39:49
F13-14 (1.6 km)
1st Taylor Mitchell - 15:22
2nd Kelly Monroe - mp
F17-20 (1.6 km)
1st Kirsten Burnett, - 16:14
2nd Jennifer Mackeigan - 36:01
3rd Cheylsea Mitchell - 52:41
F21-34 (1.7 km)
1st Kendra Murray - 20:18
2nd Dahria Beatty - 22:12
3rd Georgi Pearson - 29:44
4th Janna Swales - 33:30
5th Tori Owen - 34:27
F35-44 (1.6 km)
1st Philippa McNeil - 23:29
2nd Wendy Tayler - 50:21
Kristina Gardner - mp
F45-54 (1.6 km)
1st Sabine Schweiger - 24:20
Deb Kiemele - mp
F55-64 (1.6 km)
1st Karen McKenna - 18:47
Anne Tayler - mp
F75+ (1.6 km)
1st Nesta LeDuc - 58:39
M12 (1.6 km)
1st Leif Blake - 11:25
M15-16 (1.6 km)
1st Caelan McLean - 23:13
M17-20 (1.7 km)
1st Graeme Rennie - 12:22
2nd Trevor Bray - 21:48
M21-34 (1.7 km)
1st Lee Hawkings - 12:41
2nd Forest Pearson - 13:16
3rd Graham Ereaux - 14:55
M45-54 (1.7 km)
1st Ross Burnett - 15:21
M55-64 (1.6 km)
1st Bruce McLean - 25:33
Doug Hitch - mp
Open 1 (1.6 km)
1st Mael/Luanda Pronovost - 17:18
2nd Dagmar/Kyle Janzen - 20:36
3rd Trimble (10) - 27:23
4th Sennett (4) - 27:56
5th Finn Pearson - 29:09
6th Prentice (4) - 41:52
Open 2 (1.6 km)
1st Jeremy Johnson - 23:44
2nd Cathy MacDonald - 1:13:39
3rd Tracey Taylor - 1:22:30
Adam Humphrey - mp
Steele (2) - mp
Open 3 (1.6 km)
1st Julianna Scramstad - 46:39
Dave Sharp - mp
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com