It's a day nearly five years in the making. Some thought it would never happen, but two of the people who have been making it happen for many years never had a doubt about its return.
The NWT Track and Field Championships are set to once again take over Diamond Jenness Field beginning this afternoon. It's the first time since 2019 and when you talk to Tim Borchuk and JJ Hirst, it hasn't been forgotten by anyone in the town.
"We never gave up on it," said Hirst on Monday. "It's an event that's rooted in the community and you can feel the excitement. We've had the kids practicing, people have been going by checking out the preparations, volunteers have been calling. It's back and we can't wait."
The events between 2020 and 2023 were cancelled for various reasons, Covid, wildfires and floods among the blame. There have been young athletes who have either never taken part in one of these yet or who haven't participated in one for several years.
Borchuk said no matter what, there are people who still asked or talked about it.
"Some people were looking at the track and wondering whether it had been neglected," he said. "We've either been evacuated or cooped up for one reason or another, but we've had a lot of help getting it back up. A lot of people see the action and they've jumped in. The support we receive from the town in amazing."
Hirst said as of Monday afternoon, there were around 900 entries, which is down a bit from the peak of 1,176 in 2017.
Even with the drop, it still makes the event the single-largest sporting event in the NWT in terms of population and Hirst said it may be a case of either nerves among people travelling or people not being able to make it in.
"I'm sure we'll build the numbers back up over time," he said. "People may not know what's going on and we have some who simply can't make it. Our friends in Fort Liard, for example, won't be coming this year because they have that (wildfire) threat near their community. But we're still happy with the numbers."
"I can tell you - if you come once, you're always coming," added Borchuk. "We may have kids who haven't done it yet and when they do, they don't miss another one until they graduate and even then, we get those who come back when they're 35."
Everything will get going this afternoon at 1 p.m. with some of the field events - triple jump, shot put, javelin and high jump - along with the long-distance races ranging from 1,000 metres to 5,000 metres. The meat and potatoes will happen Thursday starting at 8 a.m. with the 800-metre races, followed by the start of the heats for the sprint races. Field events will be interspersed throughout the day. Friday's action, also starting at 8 a.m., will feature the sprint finals, the last of the field events, and the relays.
The closing ceremony will happen inside Diamond Jenness Secondary School shortly after the final events finish up with the presentation of all the individual medals and team honours. The big one everyone is shooting for is the grand aggregate title, which takes the total amount of points accumulated by a team and divided by the number of athletes on a team to create an average score. Whichever team has the highest average will win it all and will be crowned the overall meet champions.
In addition to that, there's the school grand aggregate title, which uses the same formula as the overall grand aggregate except it's just the points accumulated by students which is then divided by the number of students to come up with the average. The total points banner is also up for grabs, which goes to the team which accumulates the most points, and the most sportsmanlike banner.
With everything that's gone on over the last little while, there is a contingency plan in place on the off-chance something goes awry quickly.
Borchuk said there's a plan in place every year, but it's more prevalent this time around.
"We've been in contact with the GNWT when it comes to fire and smoke, we've been in contact with the town (of Hay River) if there's a flooding issue and we have a plan to get every community out if it comes to that," he said. "If something happens, as soon as we know, they'll know. They'll all get good advance notice because it's safety first."
But the hope is that there won't be any of that to worry about and everyone can just concentrate on competing.
"It's something to celebrate," said Borchuk. "It's a chance to try and forget about all that's happened and just be a part of it."