麻豆社区

Yukon speedskaters set 33 personal bests at the territorial speedskating championships this past Sunday.

Organized by the Yukon Amateur Speedskating Association and supported by the Yukon Government and Lotteries

Yukon, skaters from Haines Junction, Marsh Lake and Whitehorse carved up the ATCO ice surface at the Canada Games Centre in the climax event of this year's skating season.

Starting out with the youngest skaters in the club, four skaters each set four personal best times 鈥� brothers Lucas and

Caius Taggart-Cox, and Jacob McPherson and Tristan Muir all set top times in the 200-m, 300-m, 400-m and 1,500-m

races.

Isaac McPherson set new personal best times in his 200-, 300- and 400-m races.

Emma Hamilton also set two personal bests in her races 鈥� one in the 200-m race where she erased an amazing 7.5

seconds off her previous time.

Wyatt Burnett of Whitehorse also had an excellent championship, finishing his 200-m race with a new personal best time of 37.76 seconds.

Among the intermediate skaters, both Michael and Christopher Ritchie of Haines Junction set two personal bests in the 400-m and 1,500-m distances, with Christopher knocking three seconds off his 1,500-m time.

Micah Taggart-Cox of Marsh Lake set a new personal best of 46.93 in the 400-m race 鈥� 27/100ths faster than his previous top time, while Hanna Wirth of Whitehorse just missed out on her own top time when she won the 500-m race.

Among the senior skaters in the club, Phil Hoffman and Barry Sugden of Whitehorse placed first and second respectively in their 500-m and 1,000-m races, while husband and wife skaters Malcolm Taggart and Jody Cox each set three personal bests in the 500-m, 1,000-m and 1,500-m distances.

Taggart finally broke the one-minute barrier in the 500-m race with a time of 59.60 seconds and Cox knocked a whopping 11 seconds off her 1,500-m time.

Donald Fortune and Shea Hoffman traded off wins in their races, with Fortune winning the 500-m and 1,000-m and Shea winning both runnings of the 1,500 m race.

Even with all the flurry of top times, many skaters said that the best part of the night was the tunnel relay race at the end.

The skaters took all the safety mats and formed a tunnel at both ends of the rink, and all the skaters had great fun

guessing when their teammate would emerge out of the darkness.

One young skater was heard saying: "That was a blast! Let's do all our races that way next year!鈥�