Territory will host 2018 competition

Yukon was well represented at the biennial North American Orienteering Championships in New Hampshire.

A well-rounded team of 11made the trip to Dartmouth College, which hosted the competition.

Dartmouth claims it is the birthplace of orienteering in North America. Seventy-five years ago it held a Tiedust, in which Darmouth fraternities competed against each other in the first orienteering competition in the U.S, the Rauner Special Collections Library wrote in a post on their blog.

A team from Phi Gamma Delta won that first event, reported The Dartmouth on Nov. 21, 1941, which was hosted by Finnish Army Lieutenant Piltti Heiskanen, who was on campus teaching military skiing.

According to the blog post, after the attacks on Pearl Harbour the winning team entered the military.

The maps included in this year’s competition were incredibly detailed, said Team Yukon’s Jennifer MacKeigan.

“I actually bought a compass because our long map had so much detail,” she said. “There was a lot of technical racing.”

MacKeigan, who competed in the middle (17th), long (18th) and sprint (19th) races, didn’t have the competition she was hoping for.

“I didn’t have a great one there, but I definitely took away what I need to work on,” she said.

Results from the Canadian senior team were good enought to win them the BK trophy, which is awarded to the top country at NAOC.

“It’s been awhile since it was in Canada,” said MacKeigan.

Top Yukon performances included Afan Jones, sweeping his races in the men’s 60+ division, Ross Burnett going two- one-two in the middle, long and sprint, Leif Blake posting second (middle) and third (long) places, Pia Blake taking second in the long and Nesta Leduc winning first in the middle and second in the long and the sprint.

Yukon will host the 2018 NAOC.

“It’s going to be a big event,” said MacKeigan. “I’m really excited to show people our amazing maps.

“I’m excited to show people that yes, orienteering is a big sport in the Yukon and we have a lot of potential here and we can expand even more.”