ANCHORAGE — Race leader and two-time champion Mitch Seavey has reached the village of Koyuk (KOY-uk) in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
The Seward, Alaska musher arrived at 7:24 a.m. Monday with 12 dogs.
Koyuk is on Norton Sound on Alaska’s Bering Sea Coast. The village is 171 miles from the finish line in Nome.
Seavey rested in Shaktoolik for five hours and 10 minutes. He left Shaktoolik (shak-TOO-lik) at 2:14 a.m. and covered the 58-mile leg to Koyuk in five hours, 10 minutes, averaging nearly 9.7 mph.
Seavey’s son and last year’s champion, Dallas Seavey, is in second place. He reached Shaktoolik at 1:35 a.m. Monday, rested 17 minutes and left at 1:52 a.m.
Norway’s Joar Lefseth Ulsom and Nicolas Petit of Girdwood, Alaska, also have left Shaktoolik for Koyuk.
