It was more quality than quantity that represented the field for this year's Icebreaker canoe and kayak race.

This past Sunday, the race celebrated its third year of existence and was highlighted by an all-star line up of paddlers that included some of the top finisher's in the 2008 Yukon River Quest.

Racing together for the first time, the tandem canoe team of Tim Hodgson and Jane Vincent took the top spot, finishing the 28-km race with a time of two hours 17 minutes and 20 seconds. "Jane's a very experienced river reader, she's awesome," said Hodgson.

"I have raced with a lot of tandem paddlers and she is really good, she is oneof the best." The Icebreaker begins at the Marsh Lake dam and works its way to Schwatka Lake, finishing by the public boat launch area.

Both Hodgson and Vincent have had plenty of success in the sport of paddling. Hodgson was a member of last year's Yukon River Quest voyager canoe team that set a race record with a time of 39:32:43. Vincent, meanwhile, paddled to a second place showing in her canoe category in the 2008 River Quest. Hodgson was impressed with thisyear's Icebreaker field.

"A lot of these people are going in all the other major races (the Yukon River Quest, The Yukon River 1,000 and the Yukon 360 Canoe and Kayak Race)," he said. "The Yukon is becoming a Mecca for marathon paddling. "We have the River Quest of course coming up and lots of these people, almost everyone here is in that race. Almost everyone is using this race as a tune up for the River Quest."

The duo are teamed up again for the Yukon River Quest in the tandem canoe event. Hodgson is hoping for some more good results in that race, which begins June 24. "Anything can happen in that race, but we are hoping to be a competitive team," he said.

The Icebreaker is hosted by Yukon Canoe and Kayak Club and sponsored by Up North Adventures, who supply all of the prizes and provide a shuttle service for participating paddlers. Prizes are awarded in a draw and not in order of finishing times.

The top prize was a life jacket won by Peter Coates, while other items given away were T-shirts, paddling hats, water bottles and other paddling accessories. A total of 12 teams took part in the race, which besides Yukoners included Alaskan teams from Skagway and Juneau.

The tandem canoe team of Cam Davies and Jason Doucet placed second with a time of two hours 26 minutes 45 seconds. Shawn Corrigan was the first soloist to complete the race. His solo kayak time was 2:34:27, which was good enough for third place. Pat McKenna and Liz Bosely, who were the top 2008 Yukon River Quest women's tandem canoe team, finished in fourth place with a time of 2:37:3. Joanie Pelletier and Karrie Johnston also had a great race, finishing just under two minutes later.

Every team in the top five, except one, had at least one female paddler on it. Coates finished with the sixthfastest time, winning the solo canoe category. His finishing time was 2:46:31 and was less than three minutes faster than solo canoeist Jim Boyd.

The duel between Coates and Boyd was one of this year's race highlights. The two were the lone representatives in the solo canoe category and, after Boyd took a lead early on, battled it out the whole race. Coates was eventually able to overtake his lone category competitor in the late stages of Sunday's race.

He made his move as a result of selecting a faster channel around the Wolf Creek area, giving him a slim lead for the remainder of the race.

"Jim's a great guy and he's one of the people that's regularly out paddling, so that was really fun," Coates said.

"He's a competitor, he isn't a tourist." Other upcoming paddling races include the Yukon River training run, which runs from Whitehorse to Burma (30 kms.) on June 20. Meanwhile, the Yukon River 1,000 will start on July 20 and the Yukon 360 Canoe and Kayak Race will take place on Discovery Day weekend (August 15-17).