ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Topic:
Participants/Winners
Citation:
Rosen,
Yereth. "Oldest Iditarod winner, 53, follows in son's footsteps." Reuters.
Thompson Reuters, 13 Mar 2013. Web. 31 Dec 2013.
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/13/us-usa-iditarod-idUSBRE92B11020130313>.
(Reuters) - The 2004 winner of Alaska's famed 1,000-mile sled-dog race, the
Iditarod, won again at age 53 on Tuesday to become the oldest champion, a year
after his son became the youngest winner.
Mitch Seavey and
his team of dogs sprinted across the finish line just 24 minutes ahead of Aliy
Zirkle, who was bidding to become the first woman to win the Iditarod since
1990, when Susan Butcher claimed her fourth championship.
Seavey mushed his
way from Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, to the Bering Sea town of Nome in
nine days, seven hours, 39 minutes and 56 seconds, his winning margin one of the
narrowest in the event's 40-year history.
"I just now
stopped looking over my shoulder, so I kind of realized we're here," Seavey
said.
Seavey had been
just 13 minutes ahead of Zirkle on Tuesday morningwhen they departed White
Mountain, an Inupiat Eskimo village where racers must stop for 8 hours.
Last year Zirkle
finished second to Seavey's son Dallas, then just 25. Dallas Seavey was on
course to come in fourth this year.
The family have a
long tradition in mushing. The race was Mitch Seavey's 20th Iditarod, and his
father competed in the inaugural race.
"I hate to go off
into the sunset thinking I only did it once out of 20 or more tries," said
Seavey, who lives in Seward, Alaska, and operates a seasonal sled-dog touring
business.
This year's
contest was marked by unusual thaw conditions and unseasonable rain in the
northern part of the trail, conditions that Seavey said helped his team.
"It seems like
the tougher it is, the better we can do."
He also gave
credit to Zirkle, a New England transplant who now lives in Two Rivers, Alaska.
"She's a great
musher, and she's going to win the Iditarod sometime, and probably more than
once. We just had a little more steam, I think,"
Zirkle, one of
the most popular mushers, was greeted by chants of "Aliy, Aliy" from spectators
as she drove her dog team into the finish chute on Nome's Front Street. "I am
pretty happy to be here," she said. "I was going for it."
The Iditarod
Trail Sled Dog Race, which commemorates a 1925 rescue mission that carried
diphtheria serum to Nome by sled-dog relay, is one of the few major U.S.
sporting events in which men and women compete on an equal footing.
The name
"Iditarod" derives from a local Athabascan term meaning "a far, distant place,"
according to race officials.
The year's event
started on March 2 with a ceremonial run in Anchorage. Of the 66 mushers who
started the race, 10 had dropped out of competition as of Tuesday night.
For his victory,
Seavey will take home $50,400 and a new truck.
(Editing by Steve
Gorman and Kevin Liffey)