Mar 14, 2003 3 min read

NOME, Alaska (AP) – A Norwegian firefighter won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Thursday, enduring extreme wind and cold toward the finish of the grueling, 1,100-mile trek. Robert Sorlie waved to hundreds of cheering spectators as he completed the race in just more than 91/2 days.

He led his eight-dog team across the line at 1:47 a.m. in near-zero temperatures, finishing ahead of Ramy Brooks and three-time Iditarod champion Jeff King.

“I’m feeling very well,” Sorlie said before he hugged his wife in the winner’s circle.

The 45-year-old musher finished in nine days, 15 hours, 47 minutes. He will take home $68,571 and a new truck.

It was only the second time Sorlie had made the trek from Anchorage to Nome, a town of 3,500 along the frozen Bering Sea.

Sorlie is the second non-Alaskan to win the Iditarod and the second winner born outside the United States. Doug Swingley of Lincoln, Mont., won four times, and Martin Buser, a Swiss native who has lived in Alaska more than 20 years, became a U.S. citizen after his fourth victory last year.

“That truck is mine,” Sorlie said before leaving the village of White Mountain on Wednesday afternoon for the 77-mile home stretch to Nome.

“It was a tough trail between White Mountain and Nome – wind, cold, much wind-blown snow,” Sorlie said. “But I’m feeling good now.”

Gusts reached up to 50 mph overnight.

Sorlie is a three-time champion of Norway’s premier long-distance dog sled race, the 600-mile Finnmarkslopet. Last year he finished ninth in the Iditarod, a record for a first-time competitor. But Sorlie said he promised his wife he will not race next year.

Sixty-four mushers entered this year’s Iditarod, which had a $600,000 purse. By late Wednesday, 49 mushers were still in the running.

Warm weather and a lack of snow this year forced organizers to make the most drastic changes in the route since the race began in 1973.

The new route was 70 miles longer and followed unfamiliar terrain. Then last weekend, organizers decided to drop one leg of the trek because of poor trail conditions, cutting about 50 miles from the race.

Buser was running in fourth place and Ken Anderson was fifth. In sixth place was John Baker, followed minutes later by Linwood Fiedler.

Completing the top 10 were Ramey Smyth, Ed Iten and Sonny Lindner.

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On the Net:

Official Iditarod site: http://www.iditarod.com

Humane Society of the United States: http://www.hsus.org