Yukoner Pia Blake kept her focus all weekend.

The 15-year-old swept the 15-16 age category at the Western Canadian Orienteering Championships held in Whitehorse from July 16-18.

Blake won gold in the long-course (4.2 kilometres) with a time of 50 minutes, three seconds. She took top spot in the middle distance (2.3 km) in 24:19, and followed that up with her third straight gold-medal run in the sprint with an unofficial time of 17:44.

Blake said her best race was in the middle distance.

"I made very few mistakes and had another 20 seconds I could have shaved off.

Middles are my best race, I find, just because of the technical side. I've been training with the Yukon team. There's nobody that's really my age. I have to keep up with what the older kids are training with, so the technical side of it is really high for me. It's the running that's not so good.”

Part of that reason is that Blake has suffered with a foot injury through the winter which has prevented her from cross-training.

She called her recovery encouraging.

"I haven't actually been able to cross-train as much,” she said of cross-country skiing.

"So the fact that I'm actually able to run these courses for the whole thing and feel good about it and actually be able to be in the competition, that's really encouraging for me. That really makes a difference.”

Yukon Orienteering Association (YOA) athletes combined for 33 medals at the Westerns.

Junior national team orienteers Kendra Murray and Lee Hawkings helped with that total.

Competing in the 17-20 age class, Murray won gold in both the middle-distance race (3.2 km) with a time of 28:41 and the long-distance (4.2 km) race with a time of 51:51 before clocking an unofficial time of 16:39 in the sprint, good enough for fourth place.

Murray was pleased with opening the competition with back-to-back gold medals.

"I'm really happy with that. Those were really good races for me. They weren't too fast, but it was really consistent orienteering, so everything worked,” Murray said.

"The sprint was a lot faster, and I usually have a little bit more trouble focusing and making quick decisions. I was hoping to be good at that today, but it didn't quite happen; I made quite a big mistake on number four.

"It's hard here because there are not that many sprint maps; there are tons of forest maps. But I probably should work on that a little bit more.”

Instead, Kerstin Burnett sprinted her way to gold in 14:52 for her third medal of the competition.

She finished both the middle- and long-distance events in third.

"I'm happy with it. For this weekend I've been focusing more on my races personally as opposed to the results. I'm not too worried about the results, but I'm happy with them anyways,” Burnett said.

The 18-year-old added that she's not necessarily a strong sprinter.

"I think I just happened to have a really clean race. At least one of the other girls made a mistake, because it put her behind me,” Burnett said.

Hawkings nabbed gold in long-distance (nine km) in 1:20:34 and second in the middle-distance with 31:11, nine seconds behind Orienteering New Brunswick Falcon team member Graham Ereaux (31:02), who is also a teammate on the junior national team.

Hawkings won his third medal, a silver in today's sprint, with a time of 15:26, behind Vancouver's Graeme Rennie (13:49).

"He's a really fast runner, kind of a sprint specialist, and I just can't keep up with him,” Hawkings said of Ereaux.

Both Hawkings and Murray recently returned from the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) in Poland at the beginning of July.

Both will also represent the Yukon at the Canadian Orienteering Championships to be held in Whitehorse from July 22-24.

"It's exhausting,” Hawkings said. "We're still just recovering from junior worlds and then you get thrown into this weekend. I'm exhausted. Luckily I have three or four days to recover before the next race, so I'm just going to have to take it easy and get my legs back.”

Murray agreed.

She said following one major competition with two more is both good and bad.

"My orienteering is pretty good right now. I think it's improved and it's gotten more consistent, just because I've been doing it for three weeks straight at the moment.

But I'm really tired. The jetlag coming back from Europe, I think I still haven't quite recovered.”

Murray, Hawkings, Burnett and Blake have each enjoyed the benefits of the Junior

National Training Centre in Whitehorse this summer.

Since the beginning of the summer, Burnett has seen improvements in her orienteering.

"It's been good to be training more often, so it's been good to be training more often, and also having the other juniors up here helps with the training, because you have competition and it makes it more fun and keeps you focused.”

Shortly after the final event at Westerns, the athletes already had their sights set on Canadians.

Murray said she is excited to push herself harder for nationals.

"Especially because there's new maps; we haven't run on them at all. Lewes Lake is a completely new map, and Carcross has been completely revised, so that'll be really fun, because these maps (last weekend) we know a little bit,” Murray said.

Hawkings is excited to show the country what the Yukon – and Yukoners – have to offer.

"I'm looking forward to Canadians because I think I can show everyone what I can do,” he said, adding that he's gained confidence from his strong finishes at Westerns and the JWOC.

"I've run four junior worlds, so I don't really get nervous for Canadian races. But you want to do good, you're always thinking about it.

"It's awesome hosting everyone and showing off what we got, because it's definitely a beautiful place for orienteering.”