Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (June 17/02) - Jeremy Steenberg took home a bronze medal for cabinet-making in Skills Canada's national trades and technology competition held recently in Vancouver.

The Iqaluit carpenter is the competition's first medal winner from Nunavut.

Steenberg and 13 others spent 16 hours over two days making an end table. Competitors who shared tools were given a drawing and just enough wood to make the table.

"I really didn't think I was going to win bronze," said Steenberg. "I was there to represent Nunavut. It was a wonderful experience."

Accepting the medal in front of more than 1,000 people was nerve-wracking, he said.

"My legs were shaking."

"He came out like a true champ," said Allyson Stroeder, Skills Canada's executive director for the North. "He was a great ambassador for the team -- very friendly and outgoing."

According to Stroeder, judges said he would have placed higher -- but his table was slightly unfinished.

"The quality was extremely high," she said.

Other Nunavummiut competitors were Jason Rumbolt of Iqaluit, who placed sixth in aircraft maintenance and Isabel MacDougall, also from Iqaluit, who placed fifth in workplace safety.