The award winners from last week’s Flin Flon Ski Club Val and Ivor Hedman Centaloppet have been announced and one family could be found all over the board.
The winner of the Centaloppet Cup - given annually to the skier with the best time after a series of calculations based on age, gender, overall time and other factors - was Matthew Unrau, age five, one of the youngest skiers in the 84 person field.
Matthew finished just ahead of another skier he knows quite well - his older sister Charlotte. Charlotte, seven years old, finished second once times had been adjusted. Another seven-year-old skier, Dex Tetlock, was third.
The youngest skier in the field was Charlotte Nabe, only five years old but younger than Matthew. Another Unrau, younger brother Luke, tied with Oliver Mitchell as the youngest participants in the event, as the two three-year-olds took part in the event but did not ski - both were transported around the course by their parents.
The Unraus were the largest family by overall participation in the crowd, with five members - parents Ruth and Brett and kids Matthew, Charlotte and Luke - taking part.
Other prominent awards were scattered around the pack. Tony Spooner, for the third consecutive year, won the award for the event’s oldest skier. Nash Neufeld won the happiest face award, while Duane Davis won the best dressed award for his voyageur canoe inspired get-up, complete with a cardboard canoe facsimile strapped around his waist and cardboard paddles attached to his ski poles.
Two Plamondons also received honours for their flair around the course. Isabel Plamondon, who ran the course in a brightly coloured striped bodysuit, won the award for most colourful, while younger sister Annika won the honour for most spectacular finish after spinning around and skiing the last 20 metres of the course backwards.
Shaun Nabe was named the event’s best dragger. Mike Lukowich was honoured for the best save, while Amanda Minten was recognized for having the field’s oldest set of skis. Sean Vansweevelt, Flin Flon’s current Rotary exchange student from Belgium, was honoured as the farthest travelled skier.
