ARVIAT/RANKIN INLET - Arviat's Michael Ivu was the first to cross the finish line in the Kivalliq 250 dog-sled race this past week.

A total of eight mushers registered for the race, which ran 250 miles from Arviat to Rankin Inlet, with check-point stops at Sandy Point and Whale Cove.

The race was dedicated to the memory of Manuel Akat and Jimmy Muckpah.

Rankin's Harry Towtongie took second in the race, after a seesaw battle with Ivu on the final day's run to Rankin from Whale Cove.

Arviat's Donny Baker took third, just edging female musher Lisa Oolooyuk of Rankin at the finish line.

The racers left Arviat at 9 a.m. on March 22 and arrived in Rankin in the late afternoon of March 24.

Towtongie said about half of the final day's trail was very good for racing.

He said then the snow loosened because of a number of Ski-Doos passing through the area.

"I don't know why they went through part of it; maybe going fishing or something," said Towtongie.

"From that point on the bottom was hard, but there was about five inches of soft snow on top and that's not really great for the dogs.

"The top four, pretty much, battled back and forth the whole race, changing spots a few times.

"I was leading most of the final day, before we had some passing problems and had to go off on a new trail that was strictly on soft snow for a while, before turning back on the packed trail."

Towtongie said he was surprised the final day produced the fastest racing of the Kivalliq 250.

He said he thought it would be the slowest day as they were leaving Whale Cove at noon.

"We had a pretty fast run for a while on that bit of a packed trail between Whale and Port Peninsula.

"It was more of a running race than a trotting race during that stretch."

Towtongie thought he was going to win after passing everyone ahead of him by the time he reached the Peninsula.

But, he said, his dogs aren't that good in soft snow and the final stretch really slowed him down.

"We were about nine miles from Rankin when Ivu passed me.

"I caught him twice, but he passed me again and I couldn't catch him after that.

"We had a lot of fun, but it's been a bad winter with three-week stretches of really cold temperatures that kept us from training.

"If we had of been able to train more, we would have been faster and, probably, done better than the 18 hours, or so, we were on the trail."

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