Speedskaters capture gold, silver, bronze in territorials
Delegation from Fort Simpson collects rainbow of medals at NWT Speed Skating Championship in Yellowknife
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, March 16, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
There's nothing quite like a birthday medal.
Tamara Deneyoua-Nahanni gets ready for a start. - James McCarthy/NNSL photo
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For Bompas Elementary School's Rhys Dowdeswell, the annual NWT Speed Skating Championship in Yellowknife was a double win.
The championships ran from March 11 to 12. By happenstance, Dowdeswell - one of Fort Simpson's delegation to the games - was celebrating his birthday at the same time.
The competition was tough and Dowdeswell, who is in his second year of speedskating, had some difficulty starting off. It didn't help matters that some of the skaters he was facing off against were two to three years older than him.
But perseverance paid off and Dowdeswell received a bronze medal in the third division.
"Getting a medal was the best part. I'm proud of how I did," Dowdeswell said.
In all, the Deh Cho participants brought home 10 medals. The Bompas delegation included two speedskaters from Sambaa K'e.
Gold went to Mikayla Lafferty in division 2 B, Ava Erasmus in division 3 C and Addyson Erasmus in division 4 E.
Silver went to Jamie Deneyoua-Nahanni in division 2 D, Tamara Deneyoua-Nahanni in division 3 A and Amaria Tanche-Hanna in division 3 D
Bronze went to Dowdeswell in division 3 D, Gombee Jose in division 4 B, Katie Noseworthy in division 4 C and Nailia Tsetso in division 4 D.
Jose said she found the competition difficult but was happy with her third-place finish.
"I like skating, and crossovers are the most difficult part but they're also the most fun," she said.
Noseworthy said aside from the skating, she was overjoyed to run into some of the friends she made at last year's competition.
"I had a lot of fun," she said.
