
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 15, 1991                   TAG: 9103150822
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NOME, ALASKA                                LENGTH: Short

SWENSON BEATS BLIZZARD TO WIN IDITAROD DOG RACE

While other mushers turned back in a blizzard, Rick Swenson plowed ahead through thigh-high snowdrifts to win a record fifth Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race today.

Swenson and his dog team crossed the finish line on Front Street in Nome at 1:35 a.m. AST (5:35 a.m. EST), about an hour ahead of his nearest competitor. The 1,163-mile race, which usually lasts 11 to 14 days, began in Anchorage on March 2. A record 75 mushers and more than 1,400 dogs competed.

About 500 cheering spectators stood on both sides of a snow-fenced chute today, stomping their feet, swinging their arms and trying to stay warm in wind-chill temperatures of 50 degrees below zero.

"The dogs are the champs," Swenson told reporters.

Defending champion and fellow four-time winner Susan Butcher had held a one-hour lead Thursday but lost it when she reversed course during a white-out. Swenson and Butcher gambled big on the weather, hoping their dog teams could find their way through the Arctic storm.

by CNB