Team Nunavik-Quebec celebrates personal best, team spirit

Deseray Cumberbatch, right, gets a hug from her brother and fellow athlete Jamessie Cumberbatch March 20, after she kicked her personal best in the One Foot High Kick event. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KRG)

Manumie Annanack, left, and Ned Jobie Snowball, right, play in the mixed juvenile table tennis competition March 20. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KRG)

There have been a number of golden moments for Team Nunavik-Quebec during this past week of competition at the Arctic Winter Games in Fairbanks, Alaska, but few were as powerful as Deseray Cumberbatch achieving a personal best.

The 22-year-old Arctic sports athlete from Inukjuak kicked a personal best of 2.24 metres March 20 in the women’s one foot high kick in front of a crowd of supporters.

“It was totally quiet for a while,” said Maggie Emudluk, the chair of the Kativik Regional Government’s regional council, who is in Fairbanks attending the games. “She didn’t win a medal in the end, but it was very gratifying to see – we were all touched.”

Cumberbatch, who has won multiple ulus in this and past Arctic Winter Games, placed fourth in the event.

A number of Team Nunavik-Quebec athletes have also received fair play pins, Emudluk said, awarded to players who make positive contributions to the competition.

March 21 marks the last day of competition at the 2014 games, which has brought in a total of 21 medals for Team Nunavik-Quebec and 16 for Team Nunavut, with more expected by the end of the day.

Team Nunavik-Quebec picked up two gold ulus in the Dene games finger pull events March 20.

Edua Jones, the team’s 29-year-old flag bearer from Inukjuak, won gold in the open male finger pull, while teammate Chris Martin followed with the silver.

And in the juvenile female finger pull, 14-year-old Nikita Johannes took home a gold ulu.

Athletes at the games have also been taking in cultural performances from groups representing each visiting region and nation.

The games’ cultural gala, hosted March 20, featured each team’s cultural contingent performing its own piece, followed by a collaboration by all performers on stage together.

This is the first year that Team Nunavik-Quebec has contributed cultural artifacts to the games; an exhibit of Inuit paintings and carvings was put together by the Avataq Cultural Institute and will be shown in Fairbanks by Nunavik elder Lucassie Napaaluk.

The games’s closing gala is scheduled for March 22.