Congratulations to Dallas Seavey, your 2014 Iditarod champion!
After eight days of a race defined by exceptional challenges and unprecedented speed, Iditarod 42’s champion came to Nome in a similar fashion: with record-breaking speed and amid a moment of great difficulty.
After a series of developments jumbled the order of Iditarod’s top competitors in the eleventh hour, 2012 champion Dallas Seavey broke through to first position, with musher Aliy Zirkle hot on his heels. Within a few hours, Seavey had added a second championship to his resume; he pulled under the Burled Arch at 4:04am, Zirkle at 4:06.
By arriving under the Burled Arch, Seavey not only claimed his second Iditarod championship in three years; he also shattered the previous finish record set in 2011 by Kotzebue musher John Baker. Where Baker made history in 2011 with a finish of 8 days and slightly less than 19 hours, Dallas Seavey made history, earlier this morning, with a finish more than 5 hours faster: 8 days, 13 hours, 4 minutes, and 19 seconds. Dallas Seavey is now the record-holder for the fastest finish time, ever, in the Last Great Race.
Stay tuned for audio of Seavey’s championship finish – as well as Zirkle’s 2nd-place arrival in Nome. Iditarod 42’s finishes have just begun in Nome, and we’ll be with you throughout this week, both online and on the air.