The ball is going to drop tonight. As we all plan for our New Year’s festivities let’s take a moment to look back on the final six months of the year before we get to celebrate. Unsurprisingly the first review was dominated by winter sports, it is chilly up here after all, we now move to the warm weather sports.

Again it is important to say that this is just a glimpse of all the amazing events that took place in the territory, and even though your sport may not have made it, it really was a lot of fun researching the past year.

JULY

We begin this review where we left off with the last one - the Yukon River Quest. The voyageur canoe team of Yukon Wide Adventures captained by Thomas de Jager of Whitehorse repeated as the fastest boat in the Quest. The team of six men landed in Dawson completing the 715-kilometre paddle in a total time of 44 hours, 21 minutes and 53 seconds.

Kiwis Ian Huntsman and Wendy Riach of Christchurch, New Zealand, set a new Quest record in the tandem kayak.

The two finished the race in a total time of 44 hours, 57 minutes and 56 seconds. Their time was 24 minutes, 13 seconds faster than the previous record.

Over 140 runners participated in the second annual Reckless Raven 50 Mile Ultra and Relay. The Canada Day ultra attracted almost 60 solo competitors and 44 teams of two.

AUGUST

The Yukon Special Olympic Athletes picked up 12 medals in Antigonish, N.S. Swimmer Ernest Chua won gold and distance runner Darby McIntyre brought home bronze in the 5,000-metre race - the first two medals for the Yukon.

Jessica Pruden got silver in the long jump. Rhythmic gymnast Aimee Lien won five medals. Kevin Spofford got two bronze in the pool. The soccer team brought home silver and Chau and Spofford teamed up to win bronze.

The North American Orienteering Championships got underway in Whitehorse, 573 participants registered from around the world. The event featured a mix of age and experience including the top world class orienteerers. After the North American event wrapped up the Canadian Orienteering Championships were held the week after in Whitehorse.

SEPTEMBER

More than 1,700 runners and walkers participated in the 36th running of the Klondike Trail of 98 Road Relay from Skagway to Whitehorse. The men’s relay team, Gettin’ Buzzed, finished first in a time of 11 hours, 38 minutes and 56 seconds. In the women’s master category the Quantum Running Machines of Whitehorse won their seventh consecutive title in a time of 16:04:34.

Whitehorse native Logan Roots was named the RMC Athlete of the Week after besting more than 10,000 participants in the 5K Canadian Army Run in Ottawa. Roots finished first overall with a time of 15:01:02.

Swimmer Ernest Chua was selected to represent Canada at the 2019 Special Olympic World Summer Games in the United Arab Emirates. Chua will become the first Yukon Special Olympian to represent the country at both the world summer and winter games.

OCTOBER

The Whitehorse Curling Club welcomed two-time Olympian Kevin Martin to run curling clinics for players of all ages.

He ran a clinic for the junior curlers and individual teams and then for the older curlers as well. Martin told the star in October that getting young curlers involved in the game is really important and that the WCC is promoting the game well.

The Whitehorse Mustangs won the first tournament of their season by taking gold in Coquitlam, B.C. The Mustangs only stumbled once during the tournament falling 5-4 to the team from Aldergrove. They avenged that loss in the championship game defeating Aldergrove 6-1.

Whitehorse local Kenny Liao competed in the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah and returned home with some hardware. Liao earned a bronze medal in the 50-59 open tennis division. In the 50-59 open men’s doubles, Liao and his teammate just missed the podium finishing in fourth.

NOVEMBER

At the beginning of the month, the Porter Creek Rams swept the Supervolley finals. The girl’s team won a back-and-forth match 3-2 over the F.H. Collins Warriors. The Rams downed the Warriors in the fifth set 15-11. In the men’s game, the Rams downed the previously unbeaten Vanier Crusaders in straight sets 3-0 to win the Supervolley championships.

The Yukon Peewee North Stars, a team made up of female players from Whitehorse, Haines Junction, Watson Lake and Carmacks travelled to Calgary to compete in the Wickfest tournament. The team went undefeated through their five games to win gold.

The mixed curling team of Bob Smallwood, Jody Smallwood, Jenna Duncan and Alexx Peech came in seventh place at the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship in Winnipeg, Man. The team finished the tournament with a 5-5 record.

DECEMBER

In the first annual Jamie Shaw Memorial Tournament, the F.H. Collins Warriors, the school Shaw worked at, swept the championship games. The girl’s team downed Skagway in an aggressive game. The boy’s team fought back after trailing early in the first half to down the Porter Creek Rams. The tournament was to honour the late Shaw.

The year ended on a winning note for Yukon biathlete Nadia Moser who captured a gold medal, her first medal ever in international competition, in Obertilliach, Austria. Moser competed in four events during the IBU World Cup but it was the women’s 7.5-kilometre sprint race where she reached the top of the podium in a time of 20:43.4.