INUVIK
The Inuvik Speed Skating Club iced the competition at the recent territorial championships held in Yellowknife.

Braeden Picek of the Inuvik Speed Skating Club put in a strong performance at the territorial speedskating championships in Yellowknife Feb. 28. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

Club members hauled in three gold medals and five silver medals in an impressive showing.

Alex Robertson, Jackson Christie and Dalton McLeod all took home gold medals in three divisions. Livea Mitchener, Madden McNeil, Kaleb Picek, Braeden Picek and Colin Mitchener captured silver medals.

Braeden Picek finished second to his teammate Christie after being bumped up an age class from the 13 to 14 year-old division to compete against his 15-year-old teammate.

"He's a lot older than me, and a lot faster," he said as other skaters poked some fun at him.

Paul MacDonald, one of the club coaches, said Picek needed the challenge of competing against older skaters due to his talent level.

"His times were such that we thought he'd better off if we bumped him up a level," he said.

Picek said he wasn't entirely thrilled with finishing second but was satisfied with his overall performance.

"I would have finished first if Jackson had been bumped up a class," he said.

"I had to lose to get second place."

He's a fifth-year skater with the club.

"It was fun, though. The parents were good, the coaches were good."

Another impressive performance was put in by Colin Mitchener, who is in his first season with the club.

He finished with a silver medal in his division after just taking up the sport last fall after the club held free tryouts for anyone interested.

"I wanted to try something new," he said.

"And skating sounded fun. I like the races."

He laughed at the suggestion that he has a strong competitive streak, along with MacDonald and his mother Johanna Mitchener.

Both agreed he's strongly competitive.

Alex Robertson, who has long been a standout with the club, was the lone contestant in his division. Most of his longtime competitors in the junior division have moved on to university, Robertson said, leaving him with a dearth of competition for the moment.

That would change, he added, once Christie is promoted.

Robertson said he wound up skating with other competitors just to compete, and so he set his sights on achieving a personal best and possibly breaking Michael Gilday's territorial record, which was an ambitious undertaking.

He said his personal best is a second short of that feat, but hasn't conceded his goal to break it some day.

"I pretty much raced against myself and all the girls," he said.

"I was trying to go for the NWT record, which is 45.46 seconds, and my personal best is 46.54, so I didn't beat it."

MacDonald said the club members performed "incredibly well."

"Everyone we sent was first, second, or third in their division," he said. "All eight members placed in the top two or three."

He estimated there were between 55 and 70 skaters at the event.

He attributed the success of the club to talent and training.

"A lot of it is training," MacDonald said. "They put their heart and soul into it, they work hard, and their practising has paid off."

"We train three or four days a week," he added.

Inuvik has a "phenomenal" amount of athletic talent in all sport, MacDonald added.