Latest Iditarod Update
From the Kansas City Star
Iditarod mushers approach Rohn
AP graphic
Kjetil Backen of Norway held a better than two-hour lead over Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof, Alaska, at the checkpoint at Rohn, Alaska, in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race.
Backen checked in at 5:41 local time, and Gebhardt got to Rohn at 7:49. Just 5 minutes after Gebhardt, Gerry Willomitzer reached the checkpoint and was in third.
Aaron Burmeister got to Rohn at 8:10. Defending champion Lance Mackey was in fifth place, after checking in at 8:24, only one minute ahead of Hugh Neff.
Eighteen of the mushers have Ion tracking devices on their sled so that race fans can watch their progress online at Iditarod.com.
Willomitzer isn’t one of the 18 mushers with the GPS tracking devices in his sled. Next year race officials hope to expand the system to include all participants.
Last year, Mackey became the first musher to achieve back-to-back wins in the Iditarod and the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, believed by many to be an even tougher long-distance sled dog race. Fresh off his fourth consecutive Quest win, the Fairbanks musher is striving to achieve that feat again.
“People might expect me to do well here. As far as that goes, there is nobody putting pressure on me except for me,” the 37-year-old throat cancer survivor said just before the overall start of the race.
Six past winners and other top contenders are among a record field of 95 mushers, promising a highly competitive race over some of Alaska’s most unforgiving terrain. The world’s longest sled dog race started off Saturday with a short ceremonial run through Anchorage.
