Brigid Murphy didn’t just win an Arctic Winter Games gold ulu on Tuesday. She won for her sportsmanship, too.
Murphy, who beat Alberta North’s Kaley Kadyk to U15 female 400m short-track speed skating gold by a second, was nominated for a sportsmanship award by the Alberta North team after going out of her way to comfort an Alberta skater who fell in the final.
Team NT coaches said Murphy, who had suffered a fall of her own a day earlier, had perhaps seen some of her own struggle this week reflected in that moment.
Her comeback to take gold on Tuesday was accompanied by a second gold of the Games for Lochlan Dunn in the U19 male 500m, plus a Northwest Territories podium sweep in the U15 male 400m event, where Seiya McEachern picked up a second gold ulu of his week ahead of Yuma McEachern and Lachlan Conway-Adams.
Completing a separate sweep of their own, the three McEachern family members on the speed skating team all won an ulu on Tuesday. Maica McEachern took silver in the U19 female 500m race.
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Dene Games contributed another gold ulu on Tuesday. Theresa Lynn won the open female snow snake as the NWT continues to shine in the adult women’s category on its Arctic Winter Games debut, Shawna McLeod having won stick pull gold a day earlier. Wednesday sees the Dene Games athletes move on to a day dedicated to hand games.
Meanwhile, Joe Curran earned Team NT’s first cross-country skiing gold ulu at the Games for 16 years when he won a dramatic sprint finish to end a 10-km freestyle race in the foothills north of Alaska’s Mat-Su Valley, where this week’s events are being held.
And after Carys Lyall’s snowshoe biathlon gold ulu on Monday, teammate Sophia Touesnard added a gold of her own in the same sport on Tuesday over the shorter sprint distance.
With some Tuesday results still being finalized, the NWT has at least 10 gold ulus from the Games so far, sitting behind Alaska and the Yukon in the medal table.
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In table tennis, Nikki Gohil lost a close final to finish with silver in Tuesday’s U18 male singles.
“I didn’t drop a set until the final. That was pretty good,” said Gohil, adding that while he was disappointed to miss the gold, he has another chance in the mixed team event later in the week. Kathleen Cai joined Gohil in winning a table tennis ulu on Tuesday, taking U15 female singles bronze.
Other silver ulus on Tuesday were won by Diezel Blake (snowshoe biathlon), Maisey Murray (snowshoe biathlon) and Kobe White (snowboard). Other bronze ulus were won by Avery Groenewegen (ski biathlon), Carolynn Fergusson (snowboard) and Kenna MacDonald-Taylor (snowboard). This list may not be exhaustive as some results are still to come.
Team NT female hockey beat Yukon 4-2 on Tuesday while the U18 male team beat Nunavut 7-5 in the day’s late game. Earlier, the U15 male team lost 2-1 to Alberta North.
The NT’s U16 male and U18 female futsal teams lost to Alaska. The U18 male team beat Alaska 3-2 in a result that remained under protest at the time of publication, relating to an officiating matter. The U16 female team narrowly lost 1-0 to the Yukon.
The NWT’s female basketball team defeated Nunavut 59-27 and the male team defeated Alaska 72-67, leaving both teams undefeated through two games.
In volleyball, the female team suffered an excruciatingly close defeat to the Yukon in the day’s early game, then lost to Alberta North before defeating Nunavut. The male team lost its three Tuesday games.
The NWT’s male curling team beat the Yukon 12-5 to keep alive its hopes of progressing to the final. The team plays again on Wednesday afternoon for a place in Wednesday evening’s final. The female team, at the time of publication, looked set to require a similar Wednesday afternoon victory to reach that night’s final.
