REGINA Scott Westburg has been to enough major competitions in his years as an athlete to understand the level of competition at the Canada Summer Games.

So have the rest of his Yukon teammates. So when talking about the Yukon's results in athletics this week in Regina, they don't sugarcoat it. After all, their up against athletes from bigger programs, with more money and better training facilities.

But a good athlete also knows that hitting the podium isn't everything, and Westburg and company certainly qualify as good athletes.

'It's been tough,' he admitted, following a great effort by the Yukon in the men's 4x400 metre relay, in which the finished fifth in their heat. 'But the other athletes have been pretty supportive of us, cheering us on. Watching them gives you inspiration to train harder.'

Rodney Hulstein, who has been one of the top young runners in the Yukon for years, said the Canada Games is mainly about personal bests.

'It's a pride thing, too. You have to come down here and feel like you're supposed to be here with everyone.'

Nine male athletes are representing the Yukon in track at these Games, in sprint, long distance and long jump events. Nearly all of them are taking part in more than one event and some, like Lauren Bradley, are competing in two tough events in one day.

It's all part of personal growth, said head coach Don White.

'I think the reason these guys continue to come out, is they see the kind of development that happens,' said White. 'Most of these guys are soccer players. They've never had to run 10,000 metres or anything like that. They end up challenging themselves to do things that under normal circumstances, they wouldn't think they could do.'

And even though those in qualifying heats haven't made it to any finals, they have set numerous personal bests, as well as impressed everyone with their efforts.

'Everyone of us gives it all they have,' said Ammon Hoefs of his teammates. 'For some of us, it doesn't work out on a given day, but the effort is still there. I'm really proud of them all.'

That's not to say it's always easy to stay positive. For Hulstein, the 5,000 metres was the toughest race at the Games, as he was feeling somewhat under the weather.

'I just didn't have it in me. I've been running the 5,000 for a long time and I kind of know where I'm at. But this was probably the hardest one as far as competition for me.

'The winning time was 13:10, or something like that (Hulstein's was 16:16.85). The guy pretty much lapped me twice, so that was pretty demoralizing.'

For Westburg, the 800 metres was a 'grueling race,' since he dropped off early.

'It's hard to stay positive when you're not really close to the pack,' he said.

But on a good day, they draw on experience to keep them going, as well as each other, like in the relay on Thursday.

'At any point in time, they could have just walked off the track,' said White. 'I've had athletes do that before.

'Some of them didn't hit the goal they wanted to, but they still saw improvement. And they're already asking what's the next competition we're going to. The guys saw the possibility of what the future holds.'

The athletics events will wrap up today with the 10,000 metre event, where the Yukon will be represented by Hulstein. In other events Thursday, it was Hoefs and Willy Palahicky giving the long jump a shot.

Hoefs finished 19th with a distance of 5.31 metres while Palahicky was 20th at 5.15 metres. The winning distance was more than seven metres.

And Bradley was seventh in his heat in the 200 metres, with a time of 24.5 seconds.

Meanwhile, the Yukon volleyball teams wrapped up their Canada Games experience Thursday.

In their first match of the day, the women fell to Nova Scotia in three sets, but they earned their first victory of the tournament by downing N.W.T. in four sets later in the evening.

Scores for the men's games were not yet available.

In men's soccer action, it was a heartbreaker for the Yukon. The local squad dominated play after tying the game at one near the start of the second half, but with about five minutes to go in the game, Newfoundland and Labrador found the back of the net to make it 2-1, and that would be the final.

The Yukon will now take on the N.W.T. for 11th place.

Closing ceremonies for the Canada Summer Games will take place at Taylor Field, home of the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders, Saturday afternoon.

Through the collaboration of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN), Access7 and SaskTel, the ceremonies will be broadcast nationally.

APTN agreed to shuffle their schedule to create airtime for the national broadcast while SCN came forward with satellite time and an offer to broadcast the ceremonies provincially and Access7 stepped up with an offer to produce and air them live in Regina.

The ceremonies were originally supposed to be broadcast on CBC, but that of course was affected by Monday's lockout.