Canadian and American teams battle to the finish line of the 2009 River Quest

An epic battle between the American and Canadian wests is shaping up on the Yukon River as Saskatchewan's Team Dene and the Texans, who hail from the Lone-Star state, are bow-to-bow.

An epic battle between the American and Canadian wests is shaping up on the Yukon River as Saskatchewan’s Team Dene and the Texans, who hail from the Lone-Star state, are bow-to-bow.

Thursday evening, the dueling paddlers clocked in at the Selkirk checkpoint six at the same 20:28 time.

“They both passed Fort Selkirk neck and neck, so when you have somebody like that on your butt or however you want to put it, you give more,” said Yukon River Marathon Paddlers Association president Jean-Francois Latour on Thursday.

The tie at Selkirk was a repeat performance of what happened at 35 km into the race at Lake Laberge’ checkpoint number one. From there, the Texans and Team Dene have been cruising just seconds apart; the biggest gap before this morning being a mere five second lead Team Dene held through checkpoints two and three.

“You don’t let go easily like that and I think they are going to give us a good show until the end,” predicted Latour. “So I can’t wait to hear the report from Kirkman Creek and then the 60 Mile River. That will be quite exciting to see them coming in in Dawson.”

While Team Dene widened its lead to nine seconds by Kirkman Creek (kilometre 580), The Texans paddled back and were the first team through the final checkpoint at Mile 60, at 11:01 this morning.

In the early going of this year’s competition, the Texans were on pace to break last year’s course record time of 39:32:43, set by Team Kisseynew.

While Latour said the Texans eventually dropped back 30 minutes off the record pace, they still have a chance.

Team Dene, who finished third in 2008, used Team Kisseynew’s 2008 boat in this year’s race.

“Last year they came with what was a good boat,” he said.

As a result, this year Team Dene approached members on Team Kisseynew (who they knew were not planning on defending their title) and asked if they could use the boat.

“They are definitely here to show what they can do. There was no question about their intentions when they first signed up for that race,” Latour added.

Other close competition is in the solo men’s group. Carter Johnson, a Yukon River Quest solo kayaker record holder, led the pack on Thursday by about 45 minutes.

In hot pursuit of Johnson was fellow solo kayakers Brad Pennington (last year’s winner) and newcomer Shaun Thrower. Both Pennington and Thrower were battling it out for second on Thursday.

The women’s tandem canoe category is another nail-biter between Yukoner Elizabeth Bosely and B.C. teammate Veronica Wisniewski and the all-Yukon squad of Joanie Pelletier and Kari Johnston. On Thursday, the B.C./Yukon pair led the way by about a minute and a half.

While the more competitive teams are expected to finish Friday afternoon, the Yukon River Quest will continue until the cut off time of 11:59 p.m. Saturday. All paddlers who complete the race within the time limit will be given a finisher’s pin.

Latour, who owns two finisher’s pins himself, said it’s important for the organization to appeal to a wide variety of paddlers.

“It’s always been the point of view of the organization is this is a race for anybody who wants to sign up and prepares well for it,” he said. “I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who would not be well prepared. You decide on your own goals for that race. If you want to win it obviously you will show your stuff early on, you might be there for the challenge of finishing it, which is a fame on its own, because we have 10 per cent of paddlers that need to scratch every year.”

He said being involved with the race for the first year as the association’s president was an enriching experience.

“I have done that race three times personally and this is definitely something challenging, both physically and mentally” he said. “Sitting in that boat for so many hours it’s a little bit insane, but this is the beauty of it, it’s such an immeasurable challenge.”