Warm temperatures force sudden change to Yukon Quest finish line

Organizers of the Yukon Quest International sled dog race made the decision to move the finish lineto Takhini Hot Springs late yesterday in order to keep mushers safe.

Officials say warm temperatures are causing rapidly changing conditions on thelower TakhiniRiverand the Yukon River.

"Over the last 16 to 24 hours we've done a number of reroutes in areas where it just sprang open with leads, which is open water," says race marshal Doug Grilliot.

"To be proactively safe here we just decided to go ahead and move it."

The finish line is now located at Kilometre 10 on the Takhini Hot Springs Road.

The change was instituted last night after the fourth place musher Matt Hall crossed the finish line at Shipyard`s Parkin Whitehorse.

He was preceded, earlier in the afternoon by Allan Moore, Brent Sass and the winner, Hugh Neff.

The top Canadian,Tagish musher Ed Hopkins, finished in 5th place at the hot springs finish linejust after 3 a.m.this morning.