Whitehorse's Lee Hawkings is a versatile athlete.

The 20-year-old proved that during the Long Lake Triathlon held on Saturday.

It was his first-ever triathlon. He won the open men's category in one hour, 49 minutes, 50 seconds.

"It was the first triathlon I've ever run, so I was pretty surprised and quite stoked,” Hawkings said.

Starting at Long Lake, the course took athletes on a one-kilometre swim, a 15.5-km mountain bike ride and a six-km run.

Graham Ereaux took second in 1:55:45 and Logan Potter placed third with a time of 1:55:19. Kim Schlosser won the open women's class with a time of 2:27:29 while Alison Perrin finished second in 2:32:16.

For the bike portion, organizers maximized the use of single-track trails off the logging roads. The running portion also featured an updated route along a new trail cut near the lake.

Past men's champion Ian Parker, who set last year's course record with a time of 1:33:11, teamed up with runner Stephen Waterreus and swimmer Joel Macht to form the team Long Lake Lotharios, the only male team in the event. They won.

For Parker, who seemed hell-bent on not entering this year's triathlon, it was a game-time decision.

"I had heard they were low on numbers…(organizers) were encouraging us to come out. I wanted to do a mountain bike ride that day anyways,” Parker said.

The revised single-track mountain bike course made the event "a little more interesting,” he added.

Mixed team Flip-Flop-Fly – consisting of Scott Fraser, Marcus Waterreus and Miriam Lukszova – won their division with a time of 1:49:05.

Tammy & Rob – Tammy Reis and Rob Legare – placed second in 2:05:14.

Hawkings opted to make this triathlon his first because of the off-road course.

As one of Canada's top junior orienteers, he knows how to navigate his way through the woods.

"I pretty much just did it for fun,” he said. "I've always wanted to try one, and it seemed like this was a good event to try the first one, just because I mountain bike, and the trail running, I thought it would be better than the road biking and the road running that normal triathlons are.”

Hawkings won six medals over six races at the Western Canadian Orienteering Championships (WCOC) and the Canadian Orienteering Championships (COC), both held in Whitehorse last month. He picked up a gold and two silvers at the WCOC and a gold, silver and bronze at the COC.

In June, Hawkings represented Canada at the Junior World Orienteering Championships held in Poland.

Despite his prowess in the sticks, Hawkings said his strength on Saturday was in the mountain biking. Then running. Then swimming.

"I've never really done a swimming race before; I thought I'd be farther back than I was. I was quite happy with my swim,” he said, adding that he mountain bikes for fun, though has some experience racing in high school.

"I did well in those, so I know I'm a decent mountain biker; I just never put much effort into actually training for mountain biking.”

Come September, Hawkings will represent Carlton University in cross-country skiing.

"Now is the time I've been putting in the most hours of training. I'm definitely not in peak race shape or anything, but I'm feeling pretty fit right now,” he said, adding of the triathlon: "It's a great event. And if anyone else out there is looking to try a triathlon they should seriously look at the Long Lake Triathlon next year because it's a ton of fun.”