Team Yukon wins silver medal at 2008 Francophone Games

A silver medal topped a long-list of highlights for Team Yukon at the 2008 Francophone Games, which were held in Edmonton from Aug. 14 to 17.

A silver medal topped a long-list of highlights for Team Yukon at the 2008 Francophone Games, which were held in Edmonton from Aug. 14 to 17.

The territory’s contingent was comprised of 11 participants, which included competitors in athletics, badminton and visual arts.

William Kennedy won the silver medal in the 3,000-m distance with a time of 11:07 in the juvenile division.

The Yukon also came within an eyelash of winning three more medals, but ended up having to settle for fourth place.

“The kids that we brought were very good ambassadors for the Yukon,” said Jean-Francois Latour, Team Yukon’s chef de mission.  “They gave their best effort and they had fun. They created some friendships and I know they are going to be texting each other like crazy across the country and that’s what counts.”

The Francophone Games take place every three years and have been held on four occasions. The competition is open to anyone who can express himself or herself in French.

Participants also have to be between the ages of 13 to 18.

The competition features three main categories including sports, arts and leadership. The Yukon had participants in both sports and arts, but were without any representatives in the leadership category.

The Yukon’s participants in athletics included Simone Kitchen, Jesse Bouchard, William Kennedy and Tyler Wynnyk, while badminton included Jeannette Carney, Sara Kennedy, Logan Godin and Jerome Belanger.

The territory’s three members in the visual arts category were Katie Link, Emilie Meredith and Xavier Binette.

The Yukon’s only gold medal at the Francophone Games came in 1999, which was won in the visual arts competition.

At the previous Games, the Yukon’s best finish was a bronze medal in 100-m for track and field in 2005.

The arts at this year’s event featured music, dance, visual arts and improvisation categories.

Besides the Yukon,the most recent edition of the Games featured all of the Canadian provinces and the Northwest Territories.

The Northwest Territories were the smallest team with only four participants, while the larger provinces such as Ontario and Quebec had more than 100 competitors.

The Yukon continued its tradition of bringing along its mascot Henry, who is a stuffed husky. Henry has been to all of the Games, with the exception of the inaugural competition.The core sports at the Francophone Games include track and field, badminton, volleyball and basketball. Wheelchair basketball was also added as a demonstration for the first time at the Games.

In the past, sports such as swimming have also been held at the competition.

Kennedy’s silver medal run was held in a group that featured both midget and juvenile boys.

Kennedy took advantage of the cooler weather in Saturday’s morning race, getting off to a great start and settling second spot after passing runners from both Ontario as well as New Brunswick.

Two runners in the midget category were running along with him, which added to the suspense because of it was not clear which category they were competing in.

Despite being passed by the two midget runners, Kennedy held off all other juveniles to take home the Yukon’s only medal at the competition.

Other athletics results included Tyler Wynnyk, who placed fourth in both the shotput and the discus events. Wynnyk also had a 10th place showing in long jump and a 13th place result in the100-m.

Besides his silver medal in the 3,000-m, Kennedy finished in an impressive fifth place in both the 400-m and 800-m distances.

Simone Kitchen placed sixth overall in the 400-m and cracked the top 10 in the 100-m.

Jesse Bouchard finished ninth overall in the shotput event. She also rounded out the top 10 in discus, while placing 13th in long jump.         

The Yukon’s badminton results in the male single category saw Jerome Belanger and Logan Godin participated in their respective preliminary pool, but unfortunately failed to advance to the finals.

The female doubles team of Jeannette Carney and Sara Kennedy participated in the preliminary pool and were able to qualify for the finals. The team ended up in a very respectable sixth place.

The territory’s three visual arts participants took part in the three competitive categories, which included creation, limited time and masterpiece.

The three Yukoners produced some amazing pieces that were shown off at the exposition at the closing ceremonies.

Katie Link had the Yukon’s best arts finish, placing fourth overall in the Artistic Creation event. The time limit in this event was three hours.

Xavier Binette finished in 17th place, while Emilie Meredith took the 30th spot.

Both Link and Binette tied for 18th place in the following event, which featured a limited time of just 90 minutes and had a theme of The Francophone Games.

The final category was titled Masterpiece and didn’t have a theme. Competitors were given six hours to finish their art work.

Link once again had the best Yukon rating, placing 14th, while Meredith finished in the 22nd spot and Binette ended up in 29th.

Latour said there was more than one highlight at the Games.

“Well, a medal is always a good thing, so that was a good highlight,” he said. “I think the team was very cohesive. We really supported each other, because our number being smaller, it could be intimidating especially when you have Ontario beside you with 100 people screaming their heads off, but I think people appreciated the fact we were there and they were quite pleased to come and talk with us.”