Skrevet av: Niels Westphal/Anne-Mette Bjøru (transl.)
Dato: 15.03.2013 15:05
Rarely has a first-time musher, a rookie, been more experienced than this years' "Rookie of the Year" Hugh Neff. Neff, from the United States, has mushed more than twenty 1000 km sled-dog races and won numerous. The last one was Yukon Quest in 2012. He is participating in Finnmarksløpet for the very first time and he has had a fantastic debut, finishing sixth and rookie of the year in Finnmarksløpet 2013.
A big crowd had gathered in the city centre to greet Hugh when he crossed the finish line. He responded by boasting about Norway and Norwegians, wearing a special hat.
- The nature is fantastic. It's been an incredible race. However, Norwegians have a different idea about the meaning of the word "flat", he said laughing, and pointed out that there are many hills in Finnmarksløpet compared to many of the races in Alaska.
Hugh Neff has shown what an excellent musher can do even without a big team of handlers, a camper and detailed race-schedules. He has mushed with two of his own lead-dogs and the rest of the team of dogs is borrowed from people he knows in Norway and Sweden. His handler-team is only one person, in one car. He had no plan before the race started, but set some goals as the competition developed. As he says himself:
- I just wanna be a musher
From Kirkenes he was in the lead without knowing it himself. Later the speed of his team went down a bit and he was not able to follow the five in the front. Mushing on the mountain plateau in fog and minus 40 degrees last night was a hard, but Hugh and his dogs have been exposed to such conditions before and managed this time as well. After a few hours rest at Jotka the speed towards Alta was good and he crossed the finish line in the city centre at 3.40 pm. The dogs looked awake and fit, even after 1000 kilometer.
