A virtual race on the Yukon River will occur this summer for paddlers worldwide who are unable to experience the “race to the midnight sun.”
WHITEHORSE, YUKON, CANADA –
Even though the 2020 Yukon River Quest has been cancelled due to COVID-19, there will still be a race on the Yukon this summer, virtually.
Over the past few weeks, Peter Coates, president of the Yukon River Marathon Paddling Association and designer of the race tracking software used by the YRQ, has developed a virtual race. Actually, two races: a Virtual YRQ from Whitehorse to Dawson City, and a Virtual Half YRQ from Whitehorse to Carmacks.
“You get to paddle against other people while maintaining social distancing, and then some,” Coates said in his race instructions. “You will be paddling against people who might be on the other side of the world.”
Using GPS coordinates by registered teams paddling anywhere over a four-day period, and then applying them to the Yukon River race tracker, Coates will be able to track the teams based on their paddling times.
Teams actually will only have to paddle half of those usual distances (352 km for the YPQ and 150 km for the YPHQ) and those distances will be multiplied by 2 when applied to the Yukon River map.
Registration fees are $35 for the full race and $20 for the half race. For more details, see the instructions link: https://www.yukonriverquest.ca/yrq/app/virtual/guide.php?race=20ypq
MEDIA CONTACT:
Peter Coates, president: president@yukonriverquest.ca or 867-333-5628
The Virtual YRQ logo is an adaptation of a free corona virus logo developed by E Conceptive of San Jose, Calif. applied to the YRQ logo. For details on use and licensing, see https://www.iconfinder.com/econceptive