A team of six athletes ended a long dry spell for the territory when they competed at the 45th Native Youth Olympics last month.

For the first time since the 1980s, the Yukon attended the event held Apr. 16 to 18 at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage.

Megan Banks, Reena Coyne, Austin Hayduck, Fayne O’Donovan, Robyn Poulter and Kuduat Shorty made up Team Yukon.

Organized by the Yukon Aboriginal Sports Circle (YASC), the team competed in nine of the 10 Arctic sports events, which included the Eskimo stick pull, seal hop and wrist carry – in which a competitor hangs from their wrists on a stick carried by two teammates who make their way around a track.

Despite having five medals awarded in each category, the Yukon was shut out, said Colin Hickman, YASC’s sport program co-ordinator.

“But our athletes did well,” he said. “For Alaska, the reasoning behind the event is to keep the sports and traditions alive, but also a way to promote healthy living, staying in school, refraining from drugs.

“For us, we’ve been slowly building up the Arctic sports program in the territory – hoping to get more athletes to compete, and also achieve better results in competitions.”

The Native Youth Olympics provided a suitable training ground for the Yukon team, as each of the members are eligible to compete at the 2016 Arctic Winter Games.

Meanwhile, Coyne and Poulter are also eligible to compete in the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, where athletes need to be at least 1/16 of Aboriginal ancestry.

“Going to this event was a great experience for our athletes,” Hickman said, noting that he too gained valuable knowledge on how to run Arctic sports tournaments locally.

The squad, chosen after the inter-school competition last winter, was the only non-Alaska team to attend.

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Closer to home, YASC hosted the third annual Yukon Indoor Archery Championship Sunday.

Twenty-one archers took part in the event, with the high score on the day going to Leslie Kramer, who shot 705 over three rounds in the cadet compound category.

“She just started shooting very recently,” said Hickman. “It’s great, but we want to keep improving that and she’s been taking every bit of coaching advice.”

Rounding out the top five scores were Elias Barlow-White (633), Enzio Lera (603), Jacy Sam (542) and Vincent Ménard (495).

The event was part of the selection process for the national archery championships, scheduled to take place in Manitoba this August.