Whitehorse Daily Star

Image title

Photo by Vince Fedoroff

FOCUSED – Forest Pearson runs across the grass at Shipyards Park during the Yukon Orienteering celebration of World Orienteering Day Wednesday night. Participants were treated to sections of the downtown map.

Image title

Photo by Vince Fedoroff

CHECKING IN – Aven Scheck participates in the downtown orienteering meet Wednesday evening. The event celebrated World Orienteering Day.

Athletes celebrate World Orienteering Day with downtown challenge

Sticking to tradition,

By Marissa Tiel on May 25, 2017

Sticking to tradition, Jim and Beth Hawkings used the downtown Whitehorse map to entertain 76 participants at Yukon Orienteering’s World Orienteering Day event Wednesday night.

In the spirit of an urban map, there were some unexpected fences and buildings that were newer than the map, which was created in 2004.

“This part of Whitehorse is constantly changing, and the original map ... has been updated here and there,” said the Hawkings’ race report.

Starting at Shipyards Park, the courses utilized the northern portion of the map.

Four different courses were offered including a 2K novice course, 3K intermediate course, 3.9K advanced course and a 4.7K expert course.

In 2016, the first World Orienteering Day event took place, with more than 2,500 different locations taking part. Whitehorse’s event had just over 60 people participating.

World Orienteering Day exists to help the sport become more visible. Many of the events take place off the beaten path in the forest.

“We don’t just want to be hidden in the forest from people,” Yukon Orienteering Association president Afan Jones told the Star last year.

According to the World Orienteering Day website, Whitehorse’s event was the northern most in Canada.

Sixty countries took part in the day.

Leif Blake, a junior national team member, was the quickest through the expert course, finishing in 24:28. Forest Pearson was second in 25:47, while Brent Langbakk was third in 26:34.

On the advanced course, Nate Wood took top honours, finishing in 25:17, while Aisha and JF Roldan were second in 30:32 and Grant Abbott was third in 33:41.

Judith VanGulick was first in 20:10 on the intermediate course while Wendy Nixon was second in 25:14. The team effort of Kate Mason, Jamie Nickel and Sharon MacCoubrey was third in 27:03.

On the novice course, Declan, Nigel and Evan Wise were first in 16:29. Heather Swystun was second in 17:52 and Chloe Tatsumi and Corinne Tetreault were third in 18:38.

Full results are available at yukonorienteering.ca.

The next event will be the Yukon Middle Distance Championships on June 7 in the Lo-Bird Subdivision. Registration opens at 6 p.m.

Be the first to comment

Add your comments or reply via Twitter @whitehorsestar

In order to encourage thoughtful and responsible discussion, website comments will not be visible until a moderator approves them. Please add comments judiciously and refrain from maligning any individual or institution. Read about our user comment and privacy policies.

Your name and email address are required before your comment is posted. Otherwise, your comment will not be posted.