Direct from the national ski championships in Thunder Bay, the Yukon cross-country ski team haven’t slowed down from their busy month.

Having to drive 14 hours from Edmonton to Fort Smith to make it in time for the first race of the Arctic Winter Games, seven members of the ski team are competing in their second major competition in the same number of weeks.

In the first two events of the competition, Yukon skiers have won 15 medals.

“It started really well yesterday with the classic, which usually we expect doing better in classic with this team than we do in skating,” head coach Alain Masson told the Star Tuesday. “But it was a nice surprise that we did even better in skating.”

The first race of the competition Monday was the 5-km classic for all six divisions and in the juvenile male division Derek Deuling – fresh off of winning two medals at nationals – took gold winning by about a minute over his teammate Victor-Emile Thibeault who finished with the silver ulu. Yukoner Sasha Masson finished just outside of the medals in fourth place.

But this changed Tuesday with the 7.5-kilometre freestyle race. The three Yukon skiers broke away as a pack and took the top three positions, sweeping the podium. Deuling won the race in a time of 20:51 and Masson and Thibeault finished 14 seconds back with an identical time and a photo finish put Masson just a toe length ahead of his teammate.

“Derek took off after maybe 5 km of the 7.5 and he got a bit of a lead and kept that lead to the finish and Sasha and Victor were pushing hard to try and stay ahead and they just sprinted against each other for the end,” Masson said.

Junior male skier Nick Schmidt raced onto the podium in the freestyle race as well finishing in the silver position – less than a second back of first.

Amanda Thomson and Hannah Jirousek skied to two medals each, taking the silver and bronze in the classic race respectively. In the 10-km free technique race, the two skiers broke away from the rest of the field and Thomson took off in the second half of the race to take the gold with Jirousek winning the silver.

In the juvenile female division, Sonja Schmidt took gold in the classic race and finished with silver in the free.

It was a series of great races for these exhausted athletes, Masson said, after the long trip to get to the Games.

“Fourteen hours of driving is not the best preparation for the Games after finishing a national but that was the only way we can make it here,” he said.

But there are some Yukon skiers landing on the podium who didn’t make the trip to Ontario, with the midget division skiers getting their first taste of competition at this level.

In the classic race, Kate Mason won silver with Maude Molgat taking the bronze. Mason won her second silver of the Games in the freestyle race the following day.

At the national championships, Deuling won silver medals in all three juvenile boy’s individual races and continued his success at the AWG.

“It was a really good season for Derek. He’s improved a lot since last winter,” Masson said. “He’s been very consistent all winter. He’s had really good races throughout the season, but I think his races at nationals were even better than they were a bit earlier in the season.”

The younger skiers weren’t the only Yukon representatives at the championships. Fresh off his Olympic debut, Knute Johnsgaard joined the squad and raced to a bronze medal in the senior men’s 10-km classic race. From their respective university ski seasons, Natalie Hynes and Hannah and Marcus Deuling represented the territory as well.

Hynes took the silver medal in the junior women’s classic mass start race – the final individual event of the competition.

“Unfortunately for Knute he was very tired from Olympics so he did a couple races and then went back to Whitehorse. He was just too exhausted,” Masson said.

The female skiers heading to the Arctic Winter Games had to skip their last race of nationals, Masson explained, in order to get the last possible flight to Edmonton to make their first race in Fort Smith on time.

GOLDEN MOMENTS: Bianca Berko-Malvasio doubled her gold ulu total to four winning two more Arctic Sports events Tuesday in the junior female two foot high kick and triple jump. She has won all four events in the division and will compete in three more events throughout the week.

Veronica Porter took top spot in the juvenile female biathlon ski 5-km race Monday with Bronwyn Goodwin-Williams winning gold in the junior female race. Goodwin-Williams won by about three minutes over her closest competitor.

Doronn Fox won the Dene Games open male snow snake event Tuesday adding to his silver in the stick pull.