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Rankin cadets zero in on national championship

Five members of the 3019 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (RCACC) Rankin Inlet were off to Gimli, Man., to participate in the cadet regional marksmanship competition from April 13-15.

They will be accompanied by Lieut. Dorothy Tootoo from their corps.

Rankin Inlet cadets, from left, cadet Logan Siksik, Sgt. Pilakapsi Tatty, Sgt. Marikah Sanguin, Cpl. Eden Sammurtok-Kolola and Master Cpl. Sakkataaq Zawadski are all set to compete for a regional marksmanship title n Gimli, Man., on April 13. The Rankin 3019 RCACC will be looking to repeat its 2017 performance, when it qualified for the National Cadet Marksmanship Championship. photo courtesy Dorothy Tootoo

The 3019 marksmanship team qualified for the regional competition early this past month.

The Rankin cadets are trying to advance to the National Cadet Marksmanship Championship for a second-consecutive year.

Tootoo said the Rankin corps took care of its own in-house practice and competition, and then sent its mail-in targets to be scored in order to qualify for the regional event.

She said the five members of the team – Sgt. Marikah Sanguin, cadet Logan Siksik, Sgt. Pilakapsi Tatty, Master Cpl. Sakkataaq Zawadski and Cpl. Eden Sammurtok-Kolola – will be as ready as they can be to challenge for the regional title when they leave Rankin Inlet.

“Basically we competed against Nunavut cadets with the mail-in targets, which represented stage two behind our own in-house competitions,” said Tootoo.

“The National Cadet Marksmanship Championship is being held in Victoria, B.C., during the first weekend of May (May 4-6).

“We have three senior and two junior cadets on this year's team, including cadet Logan Siksik who is a brand-new cadet to the program this year.

“Our other junior cadet on the team is Cpl. Eden Sammurtok-Kolola.”

Tootoo said, at the end of the day, kids just really like shooting.

She said whether it's a brand-new or senior cadet; given the opportunity to pick their own activity, about 90 cent of them would want to go and shoot.

“We put so much time into shooting that the military is having to send me more-and-more pellets every year.

“We're training consistently on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, so that's an awful lot of shooting.

“If we do manage to advance to the National Cadet Marksmanship Championship, we certainly don't expect to be in medal contention after our three senior cadets – Chief Warrant Officer Obadiah Sanguin, Chief Warrant Officer Tatonya (Nin) Autut and Master Warrant Officer Qilak Everard – all aged out of the program, putting us back in a rebuilding mode again.

“Some of these kids, though, all of a sudden get spurred-on by the competition and, the next thing you know, they're setting a personal best at the competition, so you really never know.”