Norwegian wins Iditarod
Norwegian musher ANCHORAGE Thomas Waerner won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Wednesday, capturing victory in only his second attempt at the famous long-distance race across Alaska.
Waerner and his tail-wagging dogs reached the finish line in downtown Nome just after midnight, completing the 1,000-mile race in nine days, 10 hours and 37:47 minutes.
“It has always been a dream to come here and do the race,” said Waerner, who became fascinated by the Iditarod reading about it as an 11-year-old. “It’s amazing; I feel kind of speechless.”
A pared-down team of race officials and a small cluster of cheering fans, one waving a large Norwegian flag, greeted Waerner. The usual huge and raucous Nome finish-line crowd was absent, curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic.
To reduce chances of contagion, the City of Nome cancelled all its Iditarod-related events and discouraged visitors from out of town — a marked change from past years, when the town is packed with Iditarod revellers from around the world.
There was social distancing along the trail, too. Some of the Indigenous villages that serve as race checkpoints moved those sites out of town, and officials barred spectator crowds at those places on the trail where mushers and their dogs take breaks.
Waerner and his dogs were able to push though deep snow which slowed their closest competitors. He snatched the lead during the weekend from Jessie Royer, who was vying to become the first woman to win the Iditarod since 1990, and other top contenders.
Waerner, a 47-year-old from Synnfjell, a mountainous town near Lillehammer, ran his first Iditarod in 2015. He finished in 17th place, the top spot that year for a rookie.
For his victory, Waerner won US$51,000 and a new truck.