Aspiring Nunavik adventure athletes test skills in Inukjuak

On your mark, get set, go: Inukjuak youth get ready to start an endurance race competition. (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Two of the participants in this past weekend’s try-out for the Gaspésie International Raid hold up their registration numbers. (PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL POIRIER)

A group of youth and young adults from Inukjuak tested their skills this past weekend during a two-day adventure race.

The goal: to select a team to represent Nunavik at the Raid Gaspésie International, an international endurance race that takes place in Quebec’s Gaspé region Sept. 10 to Sept. 13.

The two-day adventure race, organized in collaboration with the Unaaq men’s group in Inukjuak, the Municipality of Inukjuak, the Kativik Regional Government, Air Inuit, Ungaluk Safer Communities and the Pituvik Landholding Corp., covered about 70 kilometres.

During the race, the 24 participants tested their orientation skills and slept outside by Hudson Bay.

“The race went well,” Unaaq’s Tommy Palliser said Aug. 18.

The winners, Eva Kasudluak Jr., Qumangu Ningiuk, Simon Ningeok and James Cumberbatch, will now go on to represent Nunavik during the race, he said.

It’s Ningeok’s second time as a team member, Palliser added.

You can see what a previous adventure race looks like here.

During the Raid International Gaspésie, teams will compete during four days of mountain biking, canoeing, trekking, climbing, and “coasteering” over about 300 km “that are sure to test both their solidarity and their ability to work as a team,” a news release about the event says.

You will be able to follow the Nunavik team live during the Gaspésie International Raid by clicking on the tab “Live Coverage” on the race’s website.