ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Norwegian musher Harald Tunheim was sidelined with a badly sprained ankle and had to watch the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on television Saturday while a handler ran his team.

Tunheim twisted his ankle at the prerace banquet Thursday night as he approached the podium to accept his bib number, race marshal Mark Nordman said.

He was taken to a hospital. X-rays determined the ankle was not broken, but doctors advised that Tunheim stay off it for a few days.

"He's in a lot of pain," Nordman said. "He was really worried about it."

After consulting with members of the Iditarod Trail Committee, race officials allowed one of Tunheim's handlers, Jacob Sarrve, to run Tunheim's team at the ceremonial start from Anchorage to Eagle River, Nordman said. It was the first time a substitute was permitted to stand in for a musher.

"Everybody agreed he (Tunheim) deserved a chance. We'd do it whether he was from Knik or from Norway," Nordman said.

The race clock does not begin until the re-start Sunday in Wasilla and the mushers' times from Anchorage to Eagle River do not count toward their elapsed time.

It was a disheartening setback for 43-year-old the musher from Alta, Norway, who is running his third Iditarod. Tunheim won the top rookie award in 1999 when he finished 19th. Last year he finished 25th.

The accident occurred as Tunheim hopped over a rope while approaching the stage, he said. He jumped from the plywood floor laid down over the ice rink and landed on the concrete flooring on the other side of the rope, which was a few inches lower than the plywood.

Despite the injury, Tunheim accepted his bib number and made a speech thanking his sponsors before heading to the kitchen in search of ice. When the pain persisted he went to a hospital, where a doctor told him he should rest his ankle for a minimum of three days.

Tunheim said he would be on his sled at the re-start Sunday.

"If I want to go to Nome I have to start," he said.