With a sneaky move near the end of the 1,770km route in Alaska, Lance Mackey burst past four-time champion Jeff King to win his second straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race yesterday.
It was a difficult race, beset with problems and the challenge of competing with King and his faster and better-rested dog team, Mackey said.
The crucial move, he told reporters, was quietly departing Elim, an Inupiat Eskimo village and race checkpoint 198km from the finish line in Nome, while King snoozed.
PHOTO: AP
"I'm not much to brag very often but, damn, I'm going to do it this time. I worked for that one," Mackey, a commercial fisherman, said after reaching Nome in nine days, 11 hours, 46 minutes and 48 seconds.
For his victory in the world's most famous sled-dog race, Mackey took home US$69,000 and a new truck, part of a total purse of about US$1 million. Live coverage of his finish was broadcast on statewide television.
Mackey said he drank two big cups of coffee in Elim, hung up his gear and pretended he was going to sleep until King dozed off.
"I lay there jittering, basically, for about 15 minutes until I heard him start snoring, then I slowly got out my stuff, snuck outside, strapped it on the top of my sled," he said. "I just took off walking down the road."
King woke up and tried to chase him but was about an hour behind by then -- a margin Mackey maintained to the end.
The two had been running within minutes of each other since about the race's midway point, although King's dogs were faster and were getting more rest at checkpoints, Mackey said.
"I had to do something a little different," he said. "The move in Elim was old-school, but it was so old-school that they forgot about it. And I needed to pull something out of the bag."
A record 96 mushers started the Iditarod on March 1 in Anchorage. When Mackey crossed the finish line, 81 were still on the trail.
The race, now in its 36th year, commemorates a 1925 mission that sent medicine to Nome by sled-dog relay to combat a fatal diphtheria outbreak.
Two members of a media production crew working with organizers of the race were injured on Tuesday when their small plane crashed en route to a race checkpoint.
Alaska state police said that Tony Verano and Matt Peterson sustained injuries that were not life threatening when the Cessna 180 went down about 20km east of White Mountain, Alaska, 125km from the Nome finish line. The pilot, Kenneth Moon, was not hurt. No other people were on board.
Verano and Peterson work for Versus cable sports television channel, formerly known as the Outdoor Life Network, said Stan Hooley, executive director of the Iditarod Trail Committee. Versus is a national media partner with the Iditarod.
Moon was flying from the checkpoint at Koyuk to White Mountain when the plane crashed, police Sergeant Andrew Merrill said.
SIBLING RIVALRY: Marc Marquez was locked in a duel with his little brother, falling behind at one point before recovering for his first season-opening victory since 2014 Six-time world champion Marc Marquez yesterday won the MotoGP season-opening Thailand Grand Prix to complete a dominant debut weekend at his new Ducati Lenovo Team, having also romped to Saturday’s sprint. The Spanish great took the 26-lap grand prix by 1.732 seconds for his 63rd MotoGP victory from younger brother Alex Marquez, who is still seeking a first checkered flag, with Francesco Bagnaia third to complete an all-Ducati podium. It completed a perfect weekend for Marc Marquez, who took pole position, the sprint victory and the grand prix win for a maximum 37 points to open the 22-leg 2025 campaign. He led from
AC Milan’s slender hopes of reaching next season’s UEFA Champions League took another hit on Thursday with a 2-1 defeat at Bologna which left them eight points from Serie A’s top four. Sergio Conceicao’s team sit eighth, some way behind fourth-placed Juventus after losing an entertaining contest at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, a match which was rescheduled from October last year due to torrential rain and flooding. Swathes of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, much of which is fertile agricultural land, had been left under water following a massive autumn downpour. Dan Ndoye prodded home the decisive goal in the 82nd minute
VALUABLE POINT: Relegation-threatened Valencia snatched a thrilling 3-3 draw at CA Osasuna thanks to a remarkable backheel volley by Umar Sadiq Barcelona on Sunday secured a comfortable 4-0 win over Real Sociedad to move back top of La Liga. Aritz Elustondo’s early red card gave Hansi Flick’s side a comfortable afternoon, with Gerard Martin, Marc Casado, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski on the score sheet. Atletico Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao on Saturday to temporarily knock the Catalans from their perch, while Real Madrid, third, lost at Real Betis Balompie. Flick was able to rotate his side a little ahead of the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 visit to face SL Benfica tomorrow and still move one point above Atletico. “There were a lot of things that
Former Australian motorcycle gang member-turned-golfer Ryan Peake, who served a lengthy jail term for assault, yesterday produced a “life-changing” maiden win to qualify for The Open Championship. Peake held his nerve for a one-stroke victory at the New Zealand Open, earning him a berth at the major in Portrush, Northern Ireland, in July, pending clearance to travel as a convicted criminal. The 31-year-old from Perth celebrated animatedly and was showered with champagne by friends on the 18th green of the Millbrook Resort course near Queenstown after a redemption story rarely seen in the refined sport of golf. Peake held back tears as he
RSS