Joseph Tuglavina won Northwest River’s first medal in the 2013 Labrador Winter Games. To the delight of Tuglavina and his community, the colour of that medal is gold.
For Tuglavina, the victory was an unexpected one. He says he never thought of himself as a favourite to win the race.
“It never came across my mind at all,” says Tuglavina.
In a small town like Northwest River, which has less than 600 people, it didn’t take long for the exciting news to spread across the community. The gold medalist was swamped with congratulatory messages.
“It’s overwhelming. Everyone is congratulating me. There’s a lot of support here,” says Tuglavina.
Behind Tuglavina in the men’s snowmobile race, Desmond Holwell (Cartwright) got silver and Samuel Tuglavina (Nain) took home the bronze.
In the women’s snowmobile race, April Andersen (Nain) won gold, Nachelle Poker (Natuashish) got the silver, and Coreen Paul (Lab City) took the bronze.
