Sports

The Kuskokwim 300 has become the latest Bethel organization to respond to the coronavirus pandemic by changing the way it operates. The organization is shutting down its pull-tab booth at the Alaska Commercial Company store until March 31. The booth attracts a lot of people, and the K300 board has decided to close it temporarily in the interest of keeping the community healthy.

Richie Diehl has gone home to Aniak. Diehl scratched from the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race on March 16 when his dogs refused to get back on the trail in Unalakleet. His team, which was running near the front of the pack during the beginning of the race, started to balk after they took an eight-hour rest on the Yukon River. Diehl managed to get the dogs going by taking it slow and giving them more rest. But by the time the team got to the coast, both he and the dogs had had enough.

Something is wrong with Richie Diehl’s sled dogs. He checked into Unalakleet at 1:30 a.m. on March 16, a half hour after Bethel’s Pete Kaiser. Kaiser took a five-and-a-half-hour rest, and left the checkpoint at 7 a.m. to head around Norton Sound and across the ice to Koyuk. By noon, he was close to Shaktoolik. Diehl stayed put. His team appears hesitant to get back on the trail. 

As of Monday morning, March 16, in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, Thomas Waerner is out on the Norton Sound ice approaching Koyuk. About 15 miles behind him is Brent Sass, followed by Jessie Royer, Aaron Burmeister, and others. There are more than a dozen teams out of Unalakleet this morning, including Bethel's Pete Kaiser, making their way along the coastline to the next official checkpoint in Koyuk. 

Jessica Klejka is the last Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta musher to leave the Yukon River. She is just about to enter Kaltag, the last checkpoint before the trail runs over a pass to the coast of the Bering Sea. 

The two other local teams in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race are ahead of her, still on their way to the coast. Pete Kaiser and Richie Diehl are mushing together about 65 miles away from Unalakleet, the first checkpoint on Norton Sound. 

The Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner has lengthened his lead in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. He came into Unalakleet on Norton Sound a little after 10 a.m. on March 15 with more than a 30-mile lead over the rest of the pack. Nineteen sled dog teams are behind him on the trail from the Yukon River to the coast this afternoon, led by Wade Marrs and Jessie Royer. 

The race among the apparent Iditarod leaders on the Yukon River is nearing its end, and teams have to do a mandatory eight-hour rest at a checkpoint before moving on. Front-runner Jessie Royer came into Kaltag at 3:18 p.m. on March 14 to begin her stay. Six teams followed her into the checkpoint, including Pete Kaiser and Brent Sass. 

The first group of mushers in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race headed down the Yukon River this afternoon with a woman leading the pack. Jessie Royer left the Ruby checkpoint at around 11:30 a.m. on March 13. She will probably make it to Galena early this evening. 

Following her down the river almost an hour and a half later was reigning Yukon Quest champion Brent Sass, with two teams hot on his heels. Joar Leifseth Ulsom and Richie Diehl left within minutes of each other, right after Sass. Ryan Redington left about a half-hour later.