Mackey Repeats Iditarod Win

Associated Press:

NOME, Alaska (AP) — Defending champion Lance Mackey has won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The 37-year-old throat cancer survivor from Fairbanks and 11 dogs crossed the finish line under Nome's burled arch at 2:45 a.m. ADT Wednesday.

SportsNetwork.com:

Mackey became the first back-to-back winner since Doug Swingley captured three straight from 1999-2001. The Mackey family has now won four Iditarod races

Reuters:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - With a sneaky move near the end of the 1,100-mile (1,770-km) route in Alaska, Lance Mackey burst past four-time champion Jeff King to win his second straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Wednesday.

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The crucial move, he told reporters, was quietly departing Elim, an Inupiat Eskimo village and race checkpoint 123 miles from the finish line in Nome, while King snoozed.

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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."