Arctic Winter Games: Day 5 Update

On the fifth day of the Arctic Winter Games at Grande Prairie, Alberta would probably remembered as the day the host contingent had a good run to surge to second place in the medal tally. In a field that is traditionally dominated by the state of Alaska, second place is the spot that most other countries could probably aspire for. If Alberta North can secure the second place spot, it would be a finish that is one notch higher than their performance during the 2008 Arctic Winter Games hosted by Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Team Alberta North won 19 gold medals in Day 5 to secure its spot firmly at second – a still somewhat distant second to Team Alaska. With the gold medals won, Alberta North has already smashed its mark set in the Yellowknife Arctic Winter Games. Team Alberta North finished the 2008 edition with 29 gold medals, 37 silvers and 24 bronzes. Just five days into the competition, the contingent has already beat those medal totals and have amassed a wealth of 32 golds, 41 silvers and 37 bronzes for a whopping total of 110.

The skiing events proved to be the difference maker for Alberta North. After five days, Team Alberta has won seven gold medals in the freestyle skiing discipline as well as eight more in the alpine skiing events. Team Alberta North has also come up big in the snowboarding event. Daniel James Campbell McNair delivered three gold medals in the alpine skiing by winning the slalom, parallel slalom and giant slalom categories for the juvenile male division. Codi Reed Paul also showed that she was good with any type of wrestling. After winning the up to 71kg division for women for the regular wrestling competition, she also won the gold for the Inuit wrestling style – a type of wrestling that is native to the Arctic region.

Team Alberta North is also heavily favored going into the semifinals of many of the team competitions. In men’s basketball, Team Alberta North is being buoyed by crowd support and is poised to sweep the preliminary rounds. They are expected to handily beat Team Yukon in the semifinals to advance to the gold medal match. Alberta North narrowly defeated Team Alaska in the preliminaries 69-65 according the Arctic Winter Games website run by GEMS. Should a rematch happen, expect the home crowd to be really supportive and loud for their hometown boys.

The Alberta North women’s basketball team will only be seeded second in the semifinals to compete with third seed Yukon after losing a heartbreaking game to Northwest Territories 63-62. They are expected to face off the winner of the other semis match between Northwest Territories and Alaska for the shot to win the gold medal in the finals. Kelsey Lund of Alberta North is far and away the leading scorer for the tournament putting up over 20 points per game.

Hockey has been a mixed bag for the Alberta North contingent. The players from the junior female are prepping for what would be an epic battle against the Yukon contingent for the first gold of the hockey competition. The boys from the midget category scored a minor upset against Nunavut in the semifinals to also find themselves in the gold medal match. The men in the bantam division were unfortunately not as lucky – Team Northwest Territories trounced Alberta North 4-3 in the semifinals to relegate the latter to the battled for the bronze medal.

In women’s volleyball, Alberta North and Alaska made easy work of their opponents in the semifinals to setup a rematch in the gold medal match. Alaska beat Alberta North in straight sets during the preliminaries 25-17, 25-19. The men’s team is highly favored to win the gold medal against the Yukon contingent. After taking care of Northwest Territories 25-8, 25-10; Alberta North would look to repeat its thrilling three-set win in the preliminaries. Alberta North narrowly defeated Yukon 25-22, 23-25, 15-8.

Despite all the big moves done by the host contingent however, Team Alaska is still poised to finish first in the medal tally when all is said and done. Their status in the competition is definitely not at risk after collecting 30 gold medals for Day 5 alone. This eclipses almost every other country in the medal standings. Their total of 202 medals – with 73 silver and 63 gold --- also ties their 2008 mark for total medals won. They only need to win ten more gold medals to tie their Yellowknife mark and all indications are pointing towards the possibility of Alaska setting a new bar for itself.

After dominating the regular wrestling competition, Team Alaska didn’t miss a beat as they likewise won most of the golds in the Inuit wrestling contests. Alaska won nine golds and three silvers on Inuit wrestling mostly sending the same wrestlers that won them gold during the first day of wrestling matches. Among those winning their second gold medal included Marie Caballa, Jenae Shannon, Rachael Shannon, Cole Miller, Kden Chace Spurgeon, Zenon Martushev, Mitchell Cody Wyatt and Tyler Thain. According to the GEMS website, the Alaskan wrestlers have managed to win 20 gold medals in total.

Celina Brown has also been turning heads in the sport of gymnastics. The 15 year-old Alaskan gymnast has won a 2010 Arctic Winter Games record of five gold medals. Brown has won the uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise and all-around competitions. She was also a vital cog in her team’s win in the team competition.

Currently in third is the contingent who had to go the furthest way to get to Grande Prairie – Yamal-Nenets. The team was the second best team in the standings back in 2008 and is still within striking distance of claiming the same spot for the 2010 Arctic Winter Games. Yamal-Nenets won the third most gold medals for the day. They almost doubled their 15 golds from the day before by winning 14 on Day 5 and pushing their total to 29 gold medals. Yamal-Nenets won four gold medals in figure skating – two of which were by Ivetta Khalimova. The team from Russia also ended up winning a lot of the table tennis final matches. Yamal-Nenets won five golds for the sport and in the doubles junior mixed doubles, they even had two teams in the final match. Despite their many golden moments, Yamal-Nenets only has 51 total medals – 15 silvers and 7 bronzes. The contingent is relatively small compared to the other teams represented in the 2010 Arctic Winter Games.

The contingent currently in fourth place is the team from Yukon. They now have a total of 70 medals – 26 golds, 25 silvers and 19 bronzes. Yukon boosted their gold medal total through the great performance of their dog mushers. Dog mushing is a time honoured tradition in the region since roads aren’t that common in the Arctic. Siblings Rachel and Ben Kinvig combined to get four gold medals. Brynn Hoffman was also sensational as she won three gold medals in the short program, free skate and combined categories for figure skating. Yukon has already equalled their gold haul from Yellowknife and have already smashed their total medals won of 81 back in 2008. A finish of fourth or higher would also be an improvement from their fifth spot result during the last Arctic Winter Games.

Running fifth is Northwest Territories who now have 24 golds, 17 silvers and 32 bronze medals for a total of 73. The team has been very sensational in speed skating where they have won ten gold medals so far. Biathlon has also been a very productive event for them. All five of their biathlon-snowshoe gold medals were won by the Norris siblings – Alicia and Brandon.

A wide gap separates the top five contingents from the bottom four. Team Nunavik Quebec is at 24 medals won with 8 being golds. Five of the golds have been won in Arctic sports events.

Nunavut is just behind with 7 golds, 11 silvers and 17 bronzes. Just like Nunavik Quebec, majority of their gold medals have come from the Arctic sports disciplines. They have also won a gold medal in Table Tennis. Nunavit could have won more golds but five of their wrestlers failed to win their gold medal matches.

Also at 7 golds is the contingent from Greenland. Greenland currently stands at 7 golds, 9 silvers and 7 bronzes for a total of 23. The contingent was able to win two gold medals from table tennis. But it was still a day of heart break as they lost out six finals events in table tennis and had to settle for six silvers.

Saami only has five medals – all of which have come from cross country skiing. Emil Dragvik Bakken won the sole gold while Jussi Henrikki Rytky has won two silvers and a bronze. The remaining bronze was won by Øyvind Erichsen.

The 2010 Arctic Winter Games will be over in just a few more days but the team events and the ball sports are still winding down to its most exciting stages. The semifinals will be held tomorrow and the gold medal matches are scheduled two days from now.

Relive the Arctic Winter Games

Intro | Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Finale

Photo by Xander.

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