A relative newcomer to the sport and a relatively new Yukoner pulled off impressive performances for the territory at the Golden Leaf Orienteering Festival, held earlier this month near Hamilton, Ont.

Seven members of the Yukon Orienteering Association extended their season by competing at the festival, which was organized by the Golden Horseshoe Orienteering Club and encompassed the biannual North American Orienteering Championships.

'It was amazing for a number of reasons,' said Yukon orienteer Barbara Scheck. 'It had fantastic organization, wonderful maps and courses and amazing weather.

'But also, just the feel was excellent. Because it was the North American championships and also a world ranking event, every North American that was able to be there, was there. So it was really great competition.'

There were four races held over the Thanksgiving weekend. On the Friday afternoon, the Sprint Championship was held on the McMaster University campus in west Hamilton.

With a scale of 1:5000, the competitors are required to run fast and make quick decisions about route choice. Courses are short and winning times should be in the range of twelve to fifteen minutes depending on the course.

Competing outside of the territory for only the second time, 12-year-old Dahria Beatty demonstrated her potential, by finishing her course in only seven minutes and five seconds, soundly winning the F13-14 category.

Not only did Dahria 'run up' against older competitors, she was the second fastest on her course.

'Dahria is actually still eligible for the 12-and-under category,' Scheck pointed out. 'And she probably could have even run up another category. Her sprint race was just amazing.'

In the very deep fields of Elite Men and Elite Women, Brent Langbakk finished eighth, Pam James, who moved to the Yukon just a couple of years ago, was fourth and Justine Scheck 15th.

Other Yukon results in the sprint were a sixth place finish by Barbara, in the F45-55 category, a fourth place result by Ross Burnett, running in M35-45, and first place for Philippa McNeil in the Open category.

The next two days of races were held on a mostly new map called Rocky Ridge, which is north of Hilton Falls.

This area provided extremely challenging technical orienteering with subtle two and a half metre contours, as opposed to the usual five metre contour intervals. The terrain was also physically challenging, with a great deal of rock features referred to as 'limestone pavement' by the locals.

In the middle distance event, James confirmed her experience with a great result of fourth out of 28 Elite Women competitors. In the Elite Men category, Burnett was 28th and Langbakk 43rd, in the large field of nearly 70.

Beatty was second in F13-14, Barbara finished sixth in the F45-55 category and McNeil again mastered the Open category.

The third day was the North American long distance race, using a different area of the Rocky Ridge map. Once more, the Yukon group came up with some strong results, recording two top-three finishes.

Beatty earned her second gold medal of the competition, and firmly showed her mastery of the F13-14 category.

Barbara pointed out that Beatty showed a lot of maturity in her third race, coming back and grabbing the gold after falling behind in the middle distance the day before. While she still finished second that day, she was quite a while behind the winner.

'She didn't get upset though,' said Barbara. 'She just thought about it and came out for the long distance race knowing she had to go slower and always be aware of where she was.

'She's very fast and fit, but then she's also got the cognitive ability. Orienteering isn't just about being fast, you also have to be able to think straight under pressure.'

Meanwhile, in the Elite Women's long distance event, James received the silver medal, capping what Barbara called a weekend of great performances for James.

Also running in the Elite Women was Justine, who, having struggled the day before, took her time and chalked it up to experience.

In the Elite Men's division, Langbakk came up with an eighth place finish. Burnett finished sixth in the M35-45 category and McNeil was second in the Open category. Barbara clearly remembers where she lost focus, and a sloppy compass bearing affected her results.

'At one point I was seriously thinking that I had gone off the edge of the map' so I was pretty happy just to finish that day,' said Scheck.

The final day of the Orienteering Festival was a fun O Cross relay, using the Mount Nemo Conservation area. Situated on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, amazing views were enjoyed by anyone who paused long enough to look.

Although not part of the North American Championships, the Yukon had five results in the top 10 on this day.

Now back home in the territory, Barbara said most of the local orienteers will go into 'winter mode' until the competitive season starts back up next May, although a few of the orienteers travel south to compete in a couple of events over the winter.