Sport Yukon hosts awards night

Yukon athletes have had a good year.

Yukon athletes have had a good year.

To recognize the best of the best, Sport Yukon held its annual awards night on Friday at the Whitehorse Westmark.

Basketball Yukon’s Tim Brady was inducted into the Sport Yukon Hall of Fame for his 21 years as a coach in Whitehorse, bringing teams to Outside tournaments and helping to bring the program to the next level.

National/Territorial Female Athlete of the Year went to cross-country skier Dahria Beatty, while Knute Johnsgaard took home the National/Territorial Male Athlete of the Year.

Beatty had a big season last year, having been the top Canadian finisher at the World Junior Championships in Germany – as the youngest of 82 competitors in the junior women division. The 15-year-old also won the junior women’s aggregate title at the 2010 Haywood Ski Nationals in March.

Fellow member of the junior national team, Johnsgaard finished second in the junior male 20-kilometre classic at the Haywood Nationals and fourth in the 15-km, among top 10 finishes in the World Junior Trials and Eastern Canadian Championships.

Swimmer Mackenzie Downing picked up International Female Athlete of the Year, and International Male Athlete of the Year went to cyclist Zach Bell.

Downing, who is currently competing at the Canada Cup in Toronto, holds seven national titles, and earned three top 10 finishes at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, in October.

Bell also competed in the Commonwealth Games – where he won bronze in the 20-km scratch race – won four gold and a silver at the 2010 Track Cycling Canadian Championships in August and won two gold medals at a Beijing World Cup earlier this year.

Coach of the Year honours went to Brent Langbakk after the Yukon Orienteering Association hauled in a record 27 medals at the Canadian Orienteering Championships in Ottawa in August.

Administrator of the Year went to Susan Tinevez for her work with cross country skiing, while junior women’s curlers team Koltun – made up of Sarah Koltun, Chelsea Duncan, Linea Eby, Jenna Duncan and coach Lindsay Moldowan – won Team of the Year after winning gold at an international bonspiel in Saskatchewan last April and a gold at the 2010 Arctic Winter Games in Grand Prairie, Alta.