Many Whitehorse athletes made the trip to Log Cabin, B.C. for the 32nd running of the Buckwheat Ski Classic – some looking like James Bond.

It was a “”Buckwheat 0032” spy-themed event for Saturday’s event hosted by the Log Cabin Ski Society with the awards and closing banquet taking place in Skagway.

The races throughout the day saw 225 finishers in four different distances – the longest 50-km race, a 25-km race, a shorter 10-km distance and then a 5-km race for youth.

Yukon athletes made their way across the border in droves for the annual race with a familiar face on the national – and now international stage - taking top spot in the long-distance race.

Fresh off the Olympics, Whitehorse skier Knute Johnsgaard has not slowed down since his return to Canada. He recently competed at the ski nationals with the Yukon ski team in Thunder Bay, Ont., then made his way back to Whitehorse to surprise the Arctic Winter Games team as the pep rally guest speaker and finally travelled Skagway to compete in the classic.

Johnsgaard showed little signs of fatigue in his race performance storming out to a three minute lead after the first lap and not looking back.

He skied on his own throughout the race and finished in a time of 2:19:51. The next closest competitor was eight minutes back, but it was a much tighter race to the finish for second and third.

In a repeat of last year’s race for first, defending champion Colin Abbott and David Greer – both from Whitehorse – had a back-and-forth battle before Greer pulled ahead in the third and final lap to get some revenge after falling to Abbott in 2017. The defending champ finished 13 seconds back in third place.

Back in 2017, Abbott beat Greer by 51 seconds to win the race with only 13 male finishers. This year, 21 male competitors finished the 50-km race.

Matthias Purdon, also from Whitehorse, placed fourth just over 20 minutes back of Johnsgaard. In the 32-person field for the 50-km race, 24 were from the Yukon.

In the women’s race of 11 competitiors, Hannah Smith from Anchorage led from the start to win – and finish 14th overall including the male racers.

Sara Nielsen and Jane Hollenberg of Whitehorse finished second and third respectively skiing most of the race with Nielsen finishing ahead by only eight seconds.

In the 25-km male classic, Whitehorse again swept the podium with Gerard Frostad leading right from the start. He was trailed by Scott Gilbert and Willie Bell who finished over two minutes back.

On the women’s side, Maura Sullivan of Whitehorse took top spot, winning the race three minutes over Pippa Lawson, also from Whitehorse.

To complete the podium sweep, Vesta Mather finished third.

The 32nd annual race also had special awards including the Father Mouchet Award for most inspirational skier. This honour went to Whitehorse Paralympian Stephanie Dixon who skied the 10-km race.

The Des Duncan Award was given to two people to recognize volunteerism and sportsmanship. The honour went to Cory Thole as well as race founder Buckwheat Donahue who will be moving from Skagway to Wasilla.