The Sport North Federation held their annual awards ceremony last weekend and Yellowknife's Wilson Elliott won big.
The 17-year-old was named the Junior Male Athlete of the Year by the federation on Saturday for the heroics he displayed at the Canadian Open Judo Championships in Calgary on May 20.
Elliot became the first NWT resident to win a gold medal in judo at the event.
Elliott is ranked the number one under-17 judo athlete in Canada. Winning the national title has earned him a spot to compete in the Pan-American Junior
Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina from July 22 to 26.
Elliott said he is excited for the opportunity to represent his country but is focusing on competing at the Canada Cup from June 29 to July 1.
Elliott was one of 10 award recipients named by Sport North during the awards ceremony and AGM last weekend.
The Sport North Federation annual awards were given out last weekend. The 2018 AWG Junior Female futsal team was named the Team of The Year. Keynote speaker Evan Dunfee, stands with players Wren Acorn, Bronwyn Rutherford-Simon, Katie Hart, Destiny Hobbs-Stewart, Molly Gillard, Jenaya Hanninen, Aurora Fraser, Olga Duru, Charlene Sobrepena, and head coach Tonya Huck on Saturday.
Other winners included Team NT's junior female futsal team, which was named Team of the Year for capturing gold at the 2018 Arctic Winter Games and Deanne Whenham, who won Junior Female Athlete of the Year for her excellence in golf.
The junior female futsal team came into AWG having won silver at the 2016 games in Greenland. Head coach Tonya Huck said she is proud of the team's improvements, which led to gold this year.
“The girls really deserved that gold medal, they worked extremely hard for it so to be recognized by Sport North, it gives a sense of validation,” said Huck.