4:48
After crossing the finish line in Bethel, Aniak musher Richie Diehl received a rose from the crowd, which he handed to his fiance, Emerie Fairbanks. Diehl won the race on Valentine s Day, Feb. 14, at 6:38 a.m., finishing with a record-breaking time of 36 hours and 8 minutes. The previous record was held by Matt Failor, finishing the 2019 K300 in 36 hours and 32 minutes. Diehl will be taking home $25,500 of the $143,500 purse in his first Kuskokwim 300 victory.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” Diehl said after his finish. “This is a race I grew up on, and I love it. It s the biggest accomplishment in my mushing career right now.”
Diehl leads Kusko 300, Bailey leads Summit Quest 300 in dueling sled dog races Author: Anchorage Daily News
Print article On a day offering two mid-distance sled dog races in Alaska, Richie Diehl of Aniak held a narrow lead late in the Kuskokwim 300 and Jodi Bailey of Chatanika owned a narrow lead early in the Summit Quest 300. Diehl is among 13 mushers racing for a fat purse of $160,000 in the Kusko, one of the most prestigious mid-distance races in the sport. The race started Friday evening in Bethel and is expected to end there Sunday morning. Five teams, including six-time champion Pete Kaiser of Bethel and nine-time champion Jeff King of Denali Park, had made their third of four stops at a checkpoint near Tuluksak by 7 p.m. Saturday. They’ll visit the checkpoint one more time before making the final run to the finish line.
Credit Katie Basile / KYUK
Richie Diehl of Aniak has won the 2021 Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race, crossing the finish line in Bethel on Feb. 14 at 6:38 a.m. with 11 dogs.
He completed the route, which is slightly shorter than the usual 300 miles this year, in 36 hours and 8 minutes. This is the fastest recorded time in K300 history. Diehl has won both the Bogus Creek 150 and Kuskokwim 300 in the same year, something that has never been done before. This is his 13th K300 and his first victory. Diehl bested a field of 16 mushers, and will take home a prize of $25,500.
Final Race Results:
Credit Katie Basile / KYUK
Updated: 11:19 a.m.
The first mushers have arrived at the halfway checkpoint for the 2021 Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race. The top three mushers arrived within one hour of each other.
2021 Bogus Creek 150 Champion Richie Diehl from Aniak is riding the momentum from his win two weeks ago. He arrived first to the halfway checkpoint at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Fitness Center in Bethel at 9:35 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13 with 12 dogs. He was trailed by Nicholas Petit from Girdwood who arrived 28 minutes after Diehl at 10:03 a.m., with 12 dogs. Petit had broken into an early lead at the beginning of the race, but Diehl caught up and passed him shortly before midnight.
16 dog teams set to leave windy Bethel en masse for the start of the Kusko 300
Print article Volunteers on snowmachines hauled straw and other supplies while doubling as trailbreakers Thursday in preparation for this weekend’s Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race in Bethel. Strong winds buried both the race trail and the road that organizers planned to use to take supplies to a checkpoint being set up about 30 miles outside Tuluksak, race manager Paul Basile said. Thursday brought winds of 24 mph and stronger to the area, and Basile said the forecast calls for continued wind through the weekend. “It’s definitely changed our logistics the last couple of days,” he said. “We’d really been hoping to get a lot of our supplies and some of our volunteers to our Tuluksak checkpoint by truck.