Skip to content

Yukoners help net BC a bronze at tourney

The BC women’s team skated to a bronze medal at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario this weekend.

The BC women’s team skated to a bronze medal at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario this weekend.

And three Yukon hockey players — Selena Kaytor from Dawson, Teslin’s Jocelyn Boutellier and Teneesha Merkel of Whitehorse — contributed to the victory.

After beating Saskatchewan 2-0 on Thursday, the BC females made it to the medal round for the first time ever.

On Friday, they faced Southern Ontario. A win would have sent them to the gold-medal round.

“What a game, it was almost an upset as we did get the lead in the third,” said BC coach Debbie Strome.

In the last six minutes of play, Ontario tied it 3-3, and then added two more in the last minute. Despite the loss, the BC players were pleased with their performance against the No. 1 team, and ended up beating Eastern Door and the North, a team from Quebec, for the bronze.

Alex McDougall, Daniel Clethroe, Zack Moses, Glenn Skookum, Collin Dendys and Lowell Johnston played for the boys’ BC team, which finished ninth out of 10 teams.

Two Yukon players also skated for team NWT — William Sheppard of Lower Post and Chris Vance of Whitehorse.

Badminton

More than 100 young badminton players competed in the Yukon Badminton Championships last weekend at Porter Creek Secondary School, bringing the competitive badminton season to a close.

A six-court setup was kept busy over the weekend, with more than 220 matches played.

“The Watson Lake crew picked up most of the medals again this year with 13, but a few other players showed up their skills with impressive results,” said JF Roldan, president of Badminton Yukon.

Watson Lake’s Michaela Rotondi (U16-U14), and Vanessa Carlson (U19) picked up three golds each, and along with Whitehorse’s  Jerome Belanger (U16 singles, U19 doubles) won all the events they entered.

Watson Lake’s Jason Carlson won two golds and a silver, and Whitehorse’s Jessica Guest won two golds (U14), and many more players ended up with two medals or more.

“For the first time in many years, we had players coming from Dawson,” said Roldan.

“And they did great, with four medals — a gold, two silvers and a bronze.”

Roldan added that players who want to train until the end of the school year are encouraged to attend the junior training sessions, Monday and Thursday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., and Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.

Interested parties should email roldan_jf@hotmail.com

Yukon River Quest

Registration for the 2008 Yukon River Quest closed at midnight on May 1, 2008. The race is full at 100 teams, but the roster could drop some if more teams withdraw.

Teams have until June 1 to withdraw to be eligible for a 75 per cent refund of entry fees. The waitlist is down to just one tandem team.

No other teams may be added to the waitlist as of May 1. A final race roster will appear June 1.

There will be some shifting of team numbers on that date so we have a range of numbers 1-100 at race start.

Currently we have competition in all categories:

Solo kayak – 22 men, 3 women.

Solo canoe - 4 men

Tandem kayak - 16 men, 3 women, 5 mixed

Tandem canoe - 15 men, 5 women, 11 mixed

Voyageur canoe – 16 teams

In the meantime, bib sponsorships for paddlers in the race are still available, and volunteers for the race are still needed.

The River Quest runs June 25-29. For more information, visit www.yukonriverquest.com or call 867-333-5628.