Competitive track and field is back in Hay River, N.W.T., and celebrating a milestone
Competitive track and field is returning to Hay River after a four-year hiatus.
The N.W.T. Track and Field Championships had not been held since 2019 due to cancellations caused by COVID-19, and then by mass flood and fire evacuations.
But this week, over 900 athletes from across the territory will be competing in what will be the 30th anniversary of the championships, held June 5 to 8.
Fort Smith resident Beverly Chepelsky's three children are all participating this year.
She said it's been a long four years of sporting events being cancelled, so they are really looking forward to the week.
'really excited'
"I'm really excited," she said. "I'm really excited for my kids, and it's really exciting to watch [what] they've been training really hard for the last month. So they're all looking forward to it,"
In fact, Chepelsky and her 16-year-old son, Brody, were reminiscing recently about previous track and field events that they attended and their uncertainty about the weather that would greet them, she said.
"Sometimes when we went, it was really hot and warm. We had gone one time and it snowed. But it didn't damper any of the experience. It just made it fun."
Chepelsky's 10-year-old daughter, Yevah Chepelsky-Tetso, is in Grade 4 and will be competing in the high jump, ball throw, and 100 and 200-metre dash.
She said she's looking forward to the new experience.
Track event holds a special place in the hearts of northerners
"Last year, we didn't really get to go to Hay River because they got evacuated," Chepelsky-Tetso said. "So I have never been on a school type of trip before, to anywhere. So yeah, I'm really excited to go,"
Chepelsky's 12-year-old son, Avery, is competing in long jump, high jump and ball throw, and will be running as well. He didn't miss the event when it first got cancelled, he said, but he's now looking forward to hanging out with old friends who moved away.
The track and field event holds a special place in the hearts of northerners, Beverly Chepelsky said, from former students, now parents, who held long-standing sporting records to the current students who look forward to attending every year.
She said it will be an important memory for the kids for years to come.
"This is [my daughter's] first-time experience," she said. "And she's really looking forward to it because she's watched her two big brothers have fun [on school trips]."
One of the organizers of Hay River's track and field championships said he's also very excited to have it back in the community.
"When you don't do it for a couple of years, everything gets put away, and somehow [things] get misplaced. And the weeds grow, and the grass grows. But, it's a pretty awesome feeling," said Tim Borchuk, who has volunteered for over 20 track and field events.
Borchuk said the event is deeply rooted in the community of Hay River, and after an especially hard handful of years for the town, specifically last summer, it feels amazing to have it back.
"It's something that the town is looking forward to," he said. "It's kind of nice to get something going that we've been doing for a while."
Borchuk added it couldn't have happened without all of the volunteers.
"The volunteers — you can't say enough about them," he said. "People stepping up and helping out. We got three years of weeds looked after."
