{"id":602440,"date":"2026-04-14T01:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602440\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T01:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:51:11","slug":"snowmobilers-challenged-in-250km-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/602440\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowmobilers challenged in 250km race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"byline\"><a class=\"category news\" href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Apr 13, 2026 \u2013 2:40 pm EDT<\/p>\n<p class=\"subhead\">Perry Akavak wins race from Iqaluit to Kimmirut and back Sunday, part of Toonik Tyme festivities<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <a class=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_9995-scaled.jpg\" title=\"\u2018I pushed hard and I made it\u2019: Snowmobilers challenged in 250km race\"><br \/>\n                                <img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_9995-scaled.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-post-image\" title=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>                            <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Perry Akavak says it was a \u201cgood day\u201d after winning the 2026 Kimmirut race, which took participants from Iqaluit to Kimmirut and back on Sunday. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)<\/p>\n<p class=\"author\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/author\/arty-sarkisian\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Headshot-2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/>\n\t Arty Sarkisian &#8211; Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There were a lot of cheers from Perry Akavak\u2019s supporters as his snowmobile roared across the finish line on the Iqaluit sea ice Sunday to win the annual 2026 Kimmirut race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI pushed hard and I made it,\u201d said Akavak, who is from Pangnirtung. \u201cAnd I made my father, friends and family happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was one of 24 people who participated in the roughly 250-kilometre race from Iqaluit to Kimmirut and back as part of the annual Toonik Tyme spring celebration in Iqaluit. It took about four hours for all racers to finish the course on the cold but sunny day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a good day,\u201d\u00a0Akavak said.<\/p>\n<p>About 200 cars were parked on the ice as people gathered to watch the finish.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel very proud to represent women today,\u201d said Mary Rose Kilabuk, who was the only female participant in the race, finishing in 11th place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been wanting to participate for a few years and my brother has been encouraging me, but this is my first time,\u201d she said, with her snowmobile parked next to one owned by her brother Alex Kilabuk, who started the race but did not finish.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/ads\/260410-pspc-space-for-lease\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"373\" height=\"331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/260410.100.93.png\" class=\"no-lazy-load wp-post-image\" title=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As the winner, Akavak received a prize of $12,400. Second-place finisher Luti Ipeeli received $6,070, and in third place Rock Kakuktinniq was awarded $4,070.<\/p>\n<p>Akavak said he doesn\u2019t know yet how he will spend his winnings but said it will be for his family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy family are gonna be first priority,\u201d he said. \u201cJust settle down and just go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News\u00a0\u00a0Apr 13, 2026 \u2013 2:40 pm EDT Perry Akavak wins race from Iqaluit to Kimmirut and back Sunday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-602440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}