RYAN REDINGTON CROWNED NEW IDITAROD CHAMP!
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
BY Megan Pacer
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Hi, ADN Iditarod fans,
We hope you all enjoyed following along as Ryan Redington was crowned the new Iditarod champion yesterday.
Seeing the first member of his legendary mushing family win the race after all that the Redingtons have contributed to competitive sled dog racing over the years certainly struck a chord with a lot of Alaskans.
As part of his winnings, Redington will be presented with a bronze statue of his grandfather, Joe Redington Sr., who was instrumental in the Iditarod's founding.
There was, even more, to celebrate in Nome yesterday, as fans watched three Alaska Native mushers ride down Front Street to sweep the top three spots in the race. Bethel's Pete Kaiser, the 2019 champion and first Yup'ik musher to win the race, took second place while Aniak's Richie Diehl, a Dena'ina Athabascan, took third.
It was an exciting moment to watch play out, and a pretty impactful moment for the race itself. Redington is the sixth Alaska Native to win the Iditarod.
As Kaiser pointed out yesterday, "there's not a lot of Alaska Native teams in the race to begin with."
Mike Williams Jr., who is Yup'ik and from Akiak, is also running this year's Iditarod. The Iditarod is far from over, and you probably want to know how the other mushers fared. So let's get into what happened after the first three racers crossed the finish line:
Two Rivers musher Matt Hall claimed fourth place on Tuesday evening, arriving in Nome with his dog team at 5:21 p.m. Alaska time.
SEE THE ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS for the full story and more photos