Sports

Pete Kaiser has won the 41st running of the Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race. For the fifth time in six years, the Bethel local was crowned champion of what is called the toughest mid-distance mushing race in the world.

Thirteen mushers began the 2020 Akiak Dash with a mass start on the frozen Kuskokwim River in Bethel. The sprint race ran upriver to the halfway checkpoint of Akiak before turning downriver to finish in Bethel. Mushers competed for $30,000 in prize money and the title of the fastest team on the Kuskokwim.

Bethel musher Pete Kaiser is the first Kuskokwim 300 musher to reach the Aniak checkpoint. Kaiser arrived in Aniak at 12:23 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18 with 12 dogs after running the overland trail past Whitefish Lake. Nine minutes later, Richie Diehl made it to his hometown checkpoint. 

Kaiser and Diehl each rested about three hours in Kalskag early this morning, and both have three hours of additional rest to complete before they pass through Kalskag on the inbound trail. 

Seventeen Kuskokwim 300 teams are through the Kalskag checkpoint and on their way to Aniak. It’s an extremely tight pack: within a 20-minute period this morning, the front nine teams left Kalskag. 

Twenty-one Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race teams charged out of Bethel the night of Jan. 17 on a hard-packed trail headed to Aniak, while seven teams raced upriver in the Bogus Creek 150. Hundreds of race fans came out to send off the teams before being treated to a fireworks show.

Thirteen mushers will race in the 2020 Akiak Dash. Two-time champion Greg Larson will seek his third title in the approximately 65-mile race that begins on Saturday, Jan. 18. Last year’s fourth-place finisher, Nicholas Ayapan, is the top 2019 finisher to race this year. Eleven mushers are veterans, and the race’s only rookie is Abby Klager. Racers signed up on the night of Jan. 17 in Bethel.