DAWSON CITY — Jack Amos of Dawson City continued to dominate the Air North Midnight Dome Race this year, taking the top male runner category with a time of 32 minutes and 52 seconds, 12 seconds slower than his time last year.

The 17-year-old is coming off notable success earlier this month: a bronze in the Under-20, 5,000-metre at the national track and field championships and a first in the U-18, 3,000-metre at the B.C. track and field club championships.

The top female runner was Lauren Uren of Dawson with a time of 54:19.

Whitehorse resident Thomas Mooney-Rivkin was the top male walker in one hour, one minute and 29 seconds.

The top female walker was Wendy Cairns of Dawson at 1:02:25.

These category winners all received a return ticket with Air North to anywhere the airline flies.

The top male and female participants were Amos and Clair Gallagher, who each received a $100 gift card at Sports Experts, which was sponsored by Bombay Peggy’s.

The trail watchers had been up earlier, and water stations had been established at strategic points along the way.

John Mitchell’s Ranger and Junior Ranger crew was ready to patrol on ATVs and the EMS crew was on call, just in case.

Runners – 41 this year – and 13 walkers had to make their way up Mary McLeod Road (the old Dome Road) and weave through the Dome trail system and new Dome Road as they climbed to the top of Dawson’s Midnight Dome.

The Dome Race was graced with awesome weather again this year. There was no rain and both the 9:30 a.m. start for walkers and the 10:00 start for runners were pleasantly cool for strenuous work without being at all unpleasant.

At the top, 7.2 kilometres away with 564 metres in elevation gain, there was a pleasant breeze to keep the bugs away, and refreshment tables with baked goods, fruit, coffee and cold drinks.

There were rumours of bear and wolf sightings, which have been common on Dome trails and in the subdivisions named after authors Jack London, Robert Service, Pierre Berton and Dick North this summer. But members of the Rangers and the territorial Environment officers were patrolling by truck and ATV and nothing was reported during the event. With noisy groups of several dozen humans pounding the dirt and chip seal, it seemed likely that any animals would keep their distance.

At the end of the awards there were special citations for the oldest male and female participants: Roger Hanberg and Janet Helton-Johnson. Each received a gift certificate from Red Mammoth and a jar of sore muscle cream from Wild Botanicals.

The last four runners were sighted heading for the chute to the top of the hill just as the award ceremony concluded.

Aside from Yukoners, this year’s race included folks from Hamilton, Vancouver, Fredericton, Victoria, England, France, Regina, Australia, Calgary, Burlington, Austria, Nova Scotia, Germany, Buffalo and Brandon., Man.

The top five male runners were: Amos, Kalum Delany of Victoria, Simon Cash of Whitehorse, Matthew Grimshaw from England and Noe Bonnin-Henique from France.

The top five female runners were: Uren, Val Dube of Dawson, Lia Johnson of Whitehorse, Teresa Bergen from Nova Scotia, and Donna Lowe of Brandon.

The top five male walkers were: Mooney-Rivkin, Mark Sasso of Hamilton, Dirk Millar of Dawson, Dave Ezzard of Dawson, and Steve Pitkin of Hamilton.

The top five female walkers were: Cairns, Elaine Conway of Vancouver, Clair Gallagher of Whitehorse, Erin Pasloski of Dawson and Janet Helton-Johnson of Dawson.