Wade Marrs laughs while talking with people at the Rainy Pass, Alaska, checkpoint on Puntilla Lake, heading toward the Alaska Range mountains, Monday, March 9, 2020, during the Iditarod trail sled dog race. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News via AP)
Republished March 10, 2020 - 5:45 PM
Original Publication Date March 10, 2020 - 9:56 AM
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Mushers continue to jockey for the lead in the early stages of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Brent Sass, a native of Minnesota who now lives in Eureka, Alaska, took the lead Tuesday.
He was the first musher to leave the checkpoint in Nikolai. Sass is coming off his victory in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, his second trophy in the competition.
Sass left Nikolai an hour and 10 minutes ahead of the second place musher, Richie Diehl of Aniak. Jessie Royer of Fairbanks was in third place, followed by Wade Marrs of Willow and Norwegian musher Tomas Waerner.
The race started Sunday for 57 mushers in Willow, Alaska, about 50 miles north of Anchorage. The winner of the nearly 1,000-mile (1609.34-kilometre) race across Alaska is expected at the finish line in Nome sometime next week.
News from © The Associated Press, 2020