NOME, Alaska (AP) – Norwegian musher Robert Sorlie won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early Thursday.
Sorlie, a 43-year-old firefighter, waved to the hundreds of cheering spectators on Front Street as he led his eight-dog team to victory at 1:47 a.m. ahead of Ramy Brooks and three-time Iditarod champion Jeff King.
“I’m feeling very well,” Sorlie said before he hugged his wife, Elin Pedersen, in the winner’s circle.
It was only the second time Sorlie had made the 1,100-mile trek from Anchorage to Nome, a town of 3,500 along the shore of the frozen Bering Sea.
Sorlie is also the second non-Alaskan to win the Iditarod and the second winner born outside the United States. Doug Swingley of Lincoln, Mont., won four times and Martin Buser, a native of Switzerland who has lived in Alaska more than 20 years, became a U.S. citizen after winning his fourth Iditarod last year.
Sorlie briefly lost his lead to Brooks the day before, when Brooks made a quick stop at a checkpoint, arriving after Sorlie but leaving before him.
But Sorlie hurried onto the trail two minutes later and was the first musher into the White Mountain checkpoint, where teams are required to take an eight-hour layover before heading for Nome. Sorlie arrived in White Mountain at 7:45 a.m. Brooks arrived at 9:16 a.m.
For winning, Sorlie will take home $68,571 and a new truck.
“That truck is mine,” he said before leaving White Mountain on Wednesday afternoon for the home stretch to Nome. Brooks conceded Sorlie had the victory when he left the checkpoint one and a half hours behind the Norwegian.
Sorlie is a three-time champion of Norway’s premier long-distance sled dog race, the 600-mile Finnmarkslopet. Last year he finished ninth in the Iditarod, to set a new rookie record and was named rookie of the year.
Warm weather forced organizers this year to lengthen the course by 70 miles. They wanted to reduce the risk of the dogs falling through thin ice or slipping on melting snow.
But the longer distance angered animal right activists, who said the decision was made simply to ensure that the race goes on.
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On the Net:
http://www.iditarod.com
AP-ES-03-13-03 0640EST
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