Musher says Iditarod official threatened him

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The head of the Iditarod’s drug testing program, who is challenging his termination from Oregon State University over allegations of bullying, has been accused of threatening a musher just before the start of this year’s race.

Iditarod officials are reviewing the allegations and will make a decision on the future role of Dr. Morrie Craig within the next few days.

Musher Wade Marrs said Craig threatened to reveal his dogs tested positive for a banned substance. Marrs felt it was out of retaliation for the musher being vocal about how race officials have handled dog doping.

The Iditarod says Marrs’ dogs did have a small amount of lidocaine in their system, but not enough to trigger a positive test.

OSU terminated Craig after a faculty committee found the toxicology professor bullied two students and sexually harassed a student and faculty member. He’s challenging his termination.

Attempts to reach Craig on Wednesday weren’t successful.

Meanwhile, a Norwegian musher seized the lead early on the fourth day of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Official standings Wednesday showed Joar Leifseth Ulsom as the first musher into Ophir.

At the checkpoint 352 miles from the race start. Ulsom stayed for 10 minutes and left shortly before 5 a.m.

Ulsom is from Mo I Rana in Norway. He was the 2013 Iditarod Rookie of the Year.

Hugh Neff of Tok was in second place on the trail to Ophir and reigning champion Mitch Seavey was in third.

Sixty-seven teams began the race Sunday in Willow.

The winner will take about nine days to travel 1,000 miles over trails and frozen rivers to reach Nome on Alaska’s west coast.