The Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club hosted the first day of the two day Yukon Cross Country Ski Championships Saturday at the Mount McIntyre trails.

The weather warmed from the past two weeks, but was unusually humid and posed some waxing problems for the athletes.

Saturday's event was a mass start in classic style. Approximately 50 skiers took part in a variety of one-kilometre through 15-km distance courses.

A further 30 skiers competed in Atom and Pee-Wee classes on a stadium area course. Older skiers completed repeated loops of 2.5, five and a new 7.5-km courses.

The Midget classes (five-km) were won by Calen McLean in 19.07 minutes and Morgan Paul in 20.33 minutes. In the Juvenile age group Katie Peters won the female class in 17.36 (five-km course); Fabien Brook in 26.30 on a 7.5km course. In the Junior Female class Janelle Greer outpaced Dahria Beatty by just five seconds in 34.01 minutes over a 10-km course.

In Junior Men, 26 seconds separated top place finisher Knute Johnsgaard (47.52 minutes) from Jeff Wood over 15-km. In Open Female class Carolyn Coombs won the 10-km course in 41.26 while Nansen Murray took Open Men (15-km) in 51.38 minutes.

Saturday's event was another step in preparation for the Haywood Ski Nationals which will be hosted by the Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club in mid-March. The event was as much a preparation for volunteer race officials as it was for skiers.

There were as many officials as skiers and the event was useful for ironing out kinks.

Next Saturday, the ski club will host day two of the championships featuring a free technique event with interval starts. The event starts at 12:30 p.m. in the ski stadium.

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Yukon Cross Country Ski

Championships Day One

Juvenile male

7.5-km classic

Skier Time

1. Fabian Brook 26:30.6

2. Izak Baril-Blouin 28:11.4

3. Trevor Bray 31:28.9

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Junior female

10-km classic

Skier Time

1. Janelle Greer 17:02.0

2. Dahria Beatty 10:01.4

3. Heidi Brook 17:03.4

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Open women

10-km classic

Skier Time

1. Carolyn Coombs 41:26.7

2. Ann Bowen 47:44.5

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Juvenile female

Five-km classic

Skier Time

1. Katie Peters 17:36.0

2. Holly Bull 18:26.3

3. Nesha Wright 18:44.5

4. Adrienne Hynes 19:42.4

5. Nahanni Sagar 21:20.9

6. Moya Painter 22:59.3

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Midget female

Five-km classic

Skier Time

1. Morgan Paul 20:33.8

2. Kassi Wright 21:15.1

3. Pia Blake 21:48.4

4. Eliza Paul 22:11.0

5. Natalie Hynes 22:16.3

6. Alexis Gee 23:29.5

7. Jamie McLeish 25:50.7

8. Solstice Sarin-Toews 27:27.5

9. Jessica Wilson 27:48.4

10. Heather Thomson 29:28.1

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Midget male

Five-km Classic

Skier Time

1. Caelan McLean 19:07.6

2. Marcus Deuling 20:11.2

3. Mac Prawdzik 21:58.5

Submitted by Afan Jones and Claude Chabot.