One Foot High Kick, and so long for now

As promised, here is the One-Foot-High-Kick Junior Men's Gold Medal winning kick, as young Damien from Igloolik wins the gold medal.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read through this, and thanks to the good people at APTN for not saying NO when I proposed a different way of covering an event.

I'm calling it a success.

Remember, if any of you have any interesting photos from Yellowknife during the AWG's, let me know at kdriscoll@aptn.ca

Like we say at the end of our stories on TV:

For APTN National News, I'm Kent Driscoll, back home in Iqaluit.

The Hardest Working Team in Show Business

Blame Holly. She is the one who called our coverage of the AWG's a marathon event that we all deserved gold ulu's in... so instead of getting a good night off before getting on a plane tomorrow, I went off to cover Junior One Foot High Kick.

The upside, a kid from Igloolik Nunavut -- who I interviewed this afternoon -- got the gold. Well done Damien. Pics and vid of the Gold winning high kick tomorrow. I live and work in Nunavut, I wasn't so much objective on that one. I'm sure the kid from Alaska is a wonderful guy, I just had a rooting interest.

And if you have been reading the comments, yes, I took the term "bloggery" from a talented writer for Nunatsiaq News in Iqaluit. I just gave you a link, now we are even ;)

What's the line,

"Immature poets emulate,
Mature poets steal outright."

So Damien won, leading me to beileve in the power of being interviewed by APTN. Stephen Colbert has his Colbert Bump -- where people who are interviewed by the pseudo-right pundit have a bump in the polls. I am starting to believe in the APTN bump.

Back to Iqaluit tomorrow. Travel day, so don't expect to see the gold winner until the weekend.

Thanks for reading, it has been a lot of fun, and here is looking forward to Grand Prairie in 2010.

--Kent

Tonight, on APTN National News

More AWG coverage.... I'm doing a wrap-up of the events today, which is a thinly veiled attempt for me to show all of you a bunch of the one foot high kick event from today.

The record for one foot high kick is 9'8".... think about it, a basketball net is at 10 ft.... these guys are literally kicking the mesh hanging from the bottom of the net.

Juanita's "The history of the Ulu" thing runs tonight, not last night as I posted earlier. I've seen it, tune in for great old time Inuit footage, many ulus, and take my recommendation, buy an ulu for your kitchen.

Dene-Za has a bit about the cultural performances at the Games for tonight's show, and Amos.... Amos took the day off, since he will be covering things on Saturday...

By Saturday, I'll be back home in Iqaluit. Save me a seat at the Navigator Friday night.... best Chinese Food Buffet in the North. Order the Ginger Chicken, you can't go wrong.

More bloggery to follow, I have been set free from TV reporting for the day, back to my webhead friends out there. The volume of hits on this site speaks volumes.... and I used volume twice in one sentence, time for more coffee.

Do you have any pics?

Just a brief respite from preparing a story for APTN National News tonight...

Every event I go to, I see all of you there, with your video cameras and digital cameras.... and that got me thinking, why should I be doing all the work?

If you have pics of competitions or athletes that you would like to see here, send them to kdriscoll@aptn.ca and I'll post them here for you.

That goes for the competitors when they go home, I will keep updating this blog as long as you keep sending me things to update it with.

Alaskan High Kick

In the above pics, the kids from Team Alaska entertain the crowd as the judges sort something out. I heard one parent describing the kick to their child as half breakdancing and half ninja, sounds right to me.

What you can see below is a video of the Alaskan High Kick Women's Final, and this game is high drama. You could have heard a pin drop in the gym as this young Alaskan got ready to kick. The stuffed seal they kick at is at 5' 8", this girl kicking is only 5'6".... again, physics denied.

A major part of the kicking games is helping out the other athletes. Sportsmanship is the rule in traditional games.

For Alaskan High Kick, you hold your left foot with your right hand, and place your left hand on the floor. You kick with your right foot, which you have to take off on and land on....

Now get up and try it. Right now. You, I'm talking directly to you. Try it. It looks like this:


Now sit back down, shake off the stares of your co-workers, and watch the video.

Enjoy, it is a little bit longer than most of the vids here, but in order to enjoy her attempt, you need to take part in the anti....cipa...................tion.

Team Whale Cove

Whale Cove is a tiny town in Nunavut's vast Kivalliq region, and these three youngsters are from there. I met up with them after the Alaskan High Kick event, and check out that tie. I'm one of those old fashioned guys who thinks that youth hockey teams should always travel in shirt and tie (says the guy who only owns one tie)... the old fashioned guys on Team Nunavut agree, and it looks sharp.

And they gave me a Whale Cove pin... cool stuff.

Joshua Jeremick'ca

Joshua Jeremick'ca is one of the Youth Ambassadors for the Arctic Winter Games. By ambassador, I guess they mean the best face to put on the NWT is to have these kids out front and center, working hard, and volunteering. To me, that is a great role for an ambassador, I can't picture Frank McKenna painting when he was our ambassador in Washington, but you never know.