Alert (May 01/06) - Michael Putulik couldn't help but smile as he stood on top of the world, a lit torch in his hand.

The Repulse Bay volleyball and badminton player - who is also skilled on the ukulele - was in Alert last month, kicking off a torch relay for the 2007 Canada Games in Whitehorse.

"I'm really proud to be representing my territory," said the soft-spoken Putulik, who joined athletes from the Northwest Territories and Yukon on the trip.

"I feel tingly. I can't stop smiling."

Putulik, 20, carried a ceremonial torch along Alert's airstrip before passing the elaborately carved baton to several soldiers who continued the roughly two-kilometre journey onto the base.

Alert, a 75-person military depot and science centre, is nestled on the upper tip of Ellesmere Island.

Organizers of the relay are hoping this is just the beginning of an ambitious project that will take the three torches to almost 70 Northern communities.

When the games roll around, Putulik will likely be on the Nunavut badminton squad. Top-level competition is nothing new for Putulik, whose volleyball team finished fourth at the 2006 Arctic Winter Games in Kenai, Alaska.