With his dad and grandfather still following in his wake, Dallas Seavey made history Tuesday night by becoming the youngest musher to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome.
Seavey, 25, crossed the finish line before cheering fans on Front Street at 7:28 p.m. local time, completing a grueling 975-mile competition that began March 4.
He finished comfortably ahead of Aliy Zirkle and Ramey Smyth, who were expected to finish second and third, respectively, and beat an age record held by five-time Iditarod champion Rick Swenson, who won his first time out in 1977 at age 27.
Zirkle, 41, who held the lead for much of the past week, posed the only real threat to Seavey after following him out of the White Mountain checkpoint, 80 miles from Nome, with more than an hour to make up.
But she could not gain enough ground in what's billed as "The Last Great Race."
Sled-dog racing is definitely in Seavey's blood. His father Mitch, winner of the 2004 Iditarod, was in seventh place at the time his son crossed the finish line.
Dan Seavey, 74, who finished third in the first Iditarod in 1973, was 53rd out of 55 mushers still in the race.
Defending champion John Baker was in eighth place and four-time champion Lance Mackey was 27th.
On beating his father, Dallas Seavy quipped to the the Alaska Dispatch, "I think he always hoped it would come after he retired."
Smyth, 36, might have contended more closely for the title were it not for a mishap at the start of the race, and illness among some of his dogs late in the contest.
On the first day of the Iditarod, Smyth tumbled from his sled after falling asleep, and spent the next 40 minutes chasing after his team of dogs.
The annual race, which was first staged in 1973, is a tribute to the role sled dogs have played in Alaskan culture and a means of preserving an historical trade route.
Handsome is he who does handsomely.
Posted by: omega replica | Mar 18, 2012 at 07:40 PM