It was a quiet first couple of days for Team Nunavut at the 2024 Arctic Winter Games in Mat-Su, Alaska, but that all changed on Tuesday.
It was a 10-ulu day for the athletes and half of them were gold. Dene games provided two of those gold medals as David Joe Audlakiak of Arctic Bay took top spot in the U18 boys snow snake. He sent the snake down the chute 105.32 metres to win it all.
In fact, the division was a podium sweep for Nunavut as Levi Natanine, also from Arctic Bay, was second with a throw of 86.65 metres to win silver and Marcus Kigutaq of Arctic Bay scored bronze with a best throw of 86.08 metres.
Lionel Willie of Arctic Bay won the open men’s snow snake with a best throw of 102.57 metres, which gave him a gold ulu, his second of the AWG so far. He won bronze on Monday in the open men’s stick pull.
Table tennis was another profitable sport for Nunavut on Tuesday as three gold ulus came courtesy of its athletes. Bonita Tigullaraq of Clyde River defeated her opponent from Nunavik in four sets to claim top spot in the U18 girls singles, while Laura Pupik-Hughson of Baker Lake as the bronze uluit thanks to her four-set win over her opponent from Yukon.
The winning kept going tor Arctic Bay as Trudy Qaunaq was the gold uluit in the U15 gils singles and it was an exciting finish as it went the whole five sets before Qaunaq knocked off her opponent from Alaska. Keegan Qamanirq was the U15 boys singles ululit as he beat his Alaskan opponent in straight sets.
Elsewhere, Joelie Satuqsi of Iglulik was a silver uluit in the U17 boys kneel jump with a best leap of 131.4 cm and Arielle Allain of Iqaluit was a bronze uluit in speedskating.
Those results followed up Monday’s winners. They included Iqaluit’s Akutaq Williamson Bathory, who continued to show why she’s one of the best to ever come out of Nunavut. She won another gold ulu in the U19 girls 1,000 metre event by more than five seconds.
Her teammate, Miles Brewster, also from Iqaluit, scored bronze in the U19 boys 1,000 metre race, while Gregor Paterson was a bronze uluit in the U15 boys 1,000 metre.