It's easy to forget that softball, tennis and golf aren't the only outdoor sports happening right now involving Yellowknife's best athletes.
It's outdoor track and field season and four of the city's finest hit the track in Calgary last weekend for the Alberta Provincial Track and Field Championships, the first big event of the outdoor season for the NWT, said coach Ed Dizon.
"They all did really good," he said. "The girls all got personal bests and we even got a couple of medals."
Those two medals came courtesy of Luke Dizon, who won himself silver in the U16 boys high jump on the first day of competition with a leap of 1.55 metres. Day two of the meet saw him compete in the triple jump, where he ended up tied for third with a leap of 10.38 metres. In a funny twist, the athlete he tied with was Hay River's Declan Munro.
He also had two personal bests to go along with those medals in the 200-metre dash (26.32 seconds) and in the long jump (5.26 metres).
Lance Dizon, Luke's brother, was also in action in his first major competition since the 2017 Canada Summer Games. He's been out of action recovering from a nagging groin injury that kept him on the sidelines.
The elder Dizon sibling competed in the U18 boys 100-metre dash, where he clocked a time of 12 seconds flat, and followed that up in the 200-metre dash with a time of 24 seconds flat. Both of those times were good enough to get him into the B finals and top-16 finishes in each.
Coach Dizon said his son is getting back to normal.
"He's getting back into form," he said. "He was telling me he could feel a twinge during training before we went to Calgary but he's feeling a lot better."
On the girls side, Destiny Hobbs-Stewart competed in three events in the U18 girls division: long jump, 400-metre and 200-metre, all of which produced personal bests for her. She managed a new personal mark of 4.38 metres in the long jump before nailing down the second one in the 400-metre final in a time of 1:05.98.
"She shaved off more than four seconds from her old time of 1:10.14," said coach Dizon.
Hannah Courtoreille was also in action and set two new personal bests. Her first one was in the U18 girls 100-metre dash, where she clocked a time of 13.58 seconds, exactly one-tenth of a second better than her old mark. She followed that up in the 200-metre dash with a time of 28.40 seconds, more than one second better than her previous best.
"Both her times earned her a spot in the B Finals and top 16 in the division.," said coach Dizon.
If you're keeping score, that was seven personal bests and two medals in all, all of which coach Dizon said he was most proud of.
"It was good for them all to experience that," he said. "This was Destiny's first time competing and she really excelled. They all exceeded expectations."
The quartet will re-unite later later this month for a meet in Sherwood Park, Alta., where they will be joined by Katie Hart, who's also entered in the meet.