Iditarod 37

Iditarod Red Lantern winner is ...

Published: March 16th, 2008 01:33 AM
Last Modified: March 16th, 2008 02:28 AM

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With 65 mushers across the finish line and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race banquet looming on Sunday, perhaps the last thing to be settled is the red lantern winner.

Deborah Bicknell of Auke Bay was the leading candidate Saturday afternoon. Bicknell, a 62-year-old rookie left Koyuk for Elim Saturday morning.

Three other rookies -- Liz Parrish of Klamath Falls, Ore., Molly Yazwinski of Fairbanks and Martin Koenig of Seeley Lake, Mont. -- were together in Elim on Saturday.

Elim is about 95 miles from Nome, but all mushers take a mandatory eight-hour layover in White Mountain before the last stretch of trail.

Dave Straub holds the record for the fastest red lantern time of 14 days, 5 hours, 38 minutes -- set in 2002. The slowest ever is one of those Iditarod records that will never be broken -- John Schultz's time of 32 days, 5 hours, 19 minutes in the inaugural Iditarod of 1973.

Rookie Deltour takes all 16 dogs to Nome

Rookie Sam Deltour of Belgium crossed the finish line Saturday morning with the 16 dogs he left Willow with still in harness.

So far, he's the only musher in this year's Iditarod to finish with all his dogs. Runner-up Jeff King of Denali Park had 16 into White Mountain but dropped two animals there.

Deltour, 22, finished 12 days, 17 hours, 50 minutes behind one of Mitch Seavey's puppy teams.

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