Team Nunavut wrestlers: all winners at the Canada Summer Games

Sandy Saviakjuk of Coral Harbour, one of Team Nunavut’s three wrestlers, grapples with his opponent from New Brunswick Aug. 8 during Canada Summer Games competitions. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

SHERBROOKE, Que. — With a group of enthusiastic Nunavut youth ambassadors in the spectator gallery during the afternoon of Aug. 7, the two Team Nunavut wrestlers left competing at the Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, Que. could hear cheering as they took on opponents from Quebec.

“Go Sandy go!” shouted a group from behind a Nunavut flag as 18-year-old Sandy Saviakjuk of Coral Harbour wrestled with Alex Moore, also in the 54 kilogram division.

The two grappled with a referee looking closely at them during several positions.

In the end, after a series of lightning-fast moves, Saviakjuk lost the match — but Saviakjuk’s spirits were still buoyed by a win the previous evening, on Aug. 6, over a member of Team Manitoba, the first win — and, as it turned out, only victory for Team Nunavut during the wrestling competitions at the games.

When Arthur Siksik of Rankin Inlet stepped on the mat in the 100 kg division Aug. 7, Annette Ray Boucher of Rankin Inlet, a youth ambassador at the games, cheered him on to win — but after two rounds, Siksik was pinned by his opponent.

David Haulli Jr. was pulled out of the afternoon’s competition Aug. 7, having suffered a muscle injury to his hip during the morning.

But the competitions continued Aug. 8 with Saviakjuk in an individual match against Antoni Mallet of New Brunswick.

It was, as Team Nunavut coach Soares put it, a “tough” match during which Saviakjuk tried in vain not to be pinned.

Saviakjuk was visibly disappointed by his loss at the end of the match.

Jeff Seeteenak of Baker Lake, Nunavut’s chef de mission at Canada Summer Games, was also on hand in the gymnasium of the Sherbooke CEGEP College where the competitions in wrestling took place.

Team Nunavut’s wrestlers may not have won medals at the games, but their presence will benefit the individual athletes and Nunavut, said Seeteenak, who also works with the Government of Nunavut in sports and recreation.

“They’re going to bring their experience back and share it with the clubs in their communities,” Seeteenak said.

That includes the experience of competing against the best young athletes in Canada.

Coach Soares, who is also vice-principal of Peter Pitseolak School in Cape Dorset, hopes that his wrestlers “get the bug” for continuing both the sport of wrestling and their higher education — after training camp Siksik, who’s also thinking about heading south to continue his education, has decided to continue his relation with wrestlers he met during a pre-games wrestling camp in Montreal and work with them at a wrestling camp later this year.

The overall experience at the Canada Summer Games can be an eye-opener for wrestlers who often practice their sport in a bubble in Nunavut, said Soares, who competed in the 1970s as a wrestler for Nova Scotia in the Canada Summer Games.

Team Nunavut’s athletic participation at the games, which ended with Saviakjuk’s loss during the morning of Aug. 8, marks a turning point for the athletes, Soares said.

“They see what the next level is and what that level is about and what they have to do,” Soares said.

Soares couldn’t praise the wrestlers enough — as the future of wrestling in the territory — or the support of the GN, and particularly of Nunavut schools.

“If it wasn’t from the support of schools, the success of Nunavut athetes wouldn’t be as good,” he said, citing schools in communities like Igloolik, Cape Dorset and Rankin Inlet for their commitment to sports.

Saviakjuk, Siksik and Haulli Jr. head home Aug. 10 with the first batch of youth from Nunavut who will be replaced by a second group of youth ambassadors at the games, which end Aug. 17.