Team Yukon second in gold medal count at Arctic Winter Games

Team Yukon is currently in fourth place in the medal standings at the Arctic Winter Games, but the team’s gold ulu count has climbed to the second most behind Alaska at the games.

Anna Rivard, who has won four silver ulus at the Games is finally golden after Wednesday’s competition.

The 16-year-old earned her gold medal after an impressive 1.77-metres in the Alaskan High Kick, which was over five inches higher than second place finisher Alice Strick of Team Alaska.

In the junior female snow snake, part of the Dene Games, Team Yukon dominated, snagging gold and silver. Justine Benjamin won gold with a distance of 65.41-m, and Elisha Sembsmoen was close behind in second with a distance of 64.68-m.

Team Yukon scored a gold in dog mushing in the four dog 7.5-kilometre race team event. Rachel Kinvig, who has two gold ulus in dog mushing at the Games already, mushed her team to victory with a time of 13:58.71.

Bryn Hoffman earned a gold medal for figure skating Wednesday in the ladies level three free skate. She also earned a gold in the ladies combined. This is her third figure skating-gold of the competition.

Also adding medals for figure skating were Teneil Caron, who also earned a silver medal in the level four ladies combined and Maya Austin, who earned a bronze medal after her ladies level two free skate.

Team Yukon earned two golds in snowshoeing to add to the seven medals won earlier in the week.

Logan Roots was a full 12 seconds ahead of the competition after the three distances of 100-m, 1,500-m and 400-m, in the junior male division. His final time was 7:28.11.

In the same event for juvenile males, Kieran Halliday was first, coming in 11 seconds ahead. In the juvenile male division, the racers run an 800-m course instead of the 1,500-m. Halliday’s final time was 5:10.9.

A second table tennis gold was earned by Team Yukon Wednesday in the juvenile male doubles tournament.

According to Snowboard Yukon president Chris McNutt, the snowboarding team earned a gold and silver in the half pipe event Wednesday evening. Official records of the half pipe events have not been recorded as of press time.