While the usual suspects continued their winning ways Tuesday, the Yukon's snowboarders and alpine skiers decided to slide into the mix on their first day of competition at the 2006 Arctic Winter Games, which are being held in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.

The Yukon sat third overall in the ulu standings after Day 2, picking up 14 new ulus for a total of 26. Four of those were gold while another four were silver and six were bronze.

Cross-country skier Janelle Greer and speed skater Troy Henry continued to dominate their competition at the Games, each collecting their second gold ulu Tuesday. Greer claimed her gold in the midget female sprint races, finishing first in the 500-m, while Henry was the top skater in the 1,000 metre event.

Henry's fellow Yukon speed skaters Brett Elliot and Tara MacKinnon also took home their second ulus, bronze and silver in the junior male and junior female 1,000 m events, respectively.

Jeff Wood once again joined Greer on the podium in cross-country skiing action, this time picking up bronze in the midget male 500-m event.

But Tuesday was also a big day for Yukon athletes participating in their first events at the Games, namely those on the slopes.

Three snowboarders came away with three ulus, one of each colour, in the bordercross competition. Liam Ferguson took gold in the juvenile male category while Wheaton Symington grabbed silver in juvenile female action and Renee Smyth won bronze in the junior female division.

And in alpine skiing, Derek Wilson got the Yukon on the board, finishing third in the juvenile male slalom event.

Other newcomers to the ulu collection included figure skaters Katie Blaker and Kayla Hallonquist, netting silver and bronze medals respectively in their short programs.

Ben Kinvig found huge success on Alaska's snowy dog sled trails, claiming the gold ulu in the juvenile coed 7.5-km, four-dog individual race. Fellow Yukoners Sophia Daniels won silver in the junior coed 10-km, six-dog individual race.

In early action at the Games today, the junior male basketball team ran its record to 4-0, picking up a big 94-64 victory over the N.W.T. Three members of the Yukon squad, which is considered one of the strongest teams in years, are in the top five in overall scoring.

David Pederson leads the way with 61 points while Tim Steele Beaver is fourth with 55 and Sina Kazemi is fifth with 52 points.

The Yukon is the only undefeated male basketball team in the tournament.

Meanwhile, the young table tennis athletes representing the Yukon are posting impressive results. In preliminary doubles action Tuesday, the junior women's duo of Zara Bachli and Karlie Knight took two matches against Alaska and Nunavut before dropping a match to table tennis heavyweight Greenland.

The junior male team of Ben Barrett-Forrest and Logan Gray beat Alaska in a 3-2 thriller before falling to Greenland and Nunavut. The juvenile female duo of Claire Abbott and Jada Powell dominated their competition in three matches against Nunavut and Alaska but couldn't top Greenland and Yamal.

And the juvenile male pair of Malkolm Boothroyd and Ryan Bachli beat Nunavut 3-1 but then lost a 3-2 squeaker to Alaska, followed by losses to Greenland and Yamal.

The Yukon badminton athletes are also up against very tough competition at the Games, but they certainly didn't seem intimidating in preliminary singles action Tuesday.

Juvenile male Richard Fulop pulled off wins over the N.W.T. and Nunavut for a record of 2-2.

For the first time in several years, the Yukon once again has a wrestling team at this year's AWG. Once considered a powerhouse in the sport, the territory sent a rather young team this year.

The individual competition starts today, but in team competition Monday and Tuesday, the Yukon finished fifth overall, loosing their final two matches against Nunavut and Alberta North.

Another first at the 2006 AWG is a curling competition being held in Homer, AK.

The Homer Ice Rink opened in August, 2005, and by all accounts, the organizers are doing a great job so far. The rink is considered an important facility to the community and it looks like curling will be added to the schedule of events for Homer, with training sessions and future competitions.

Jerry Spence and Jayson Bratten of Rosetown, Sask. were called in as the specialists to the lead the transformation at the Homer rink.

We've done this for ice rinks many times before and have the proper kit in place to make a full transformation,' said Jayson.

The equipment used to make this transformation includes a Jet Ice water system, ice scrapers, scoreboards, bumpers, carpet, bleachers and rocks, which have been used by the pros at U.S. curling championships and in Salt Lake City at the Olympics, according to the Brattens.