Saipan Tribune

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Monday, October 15, 2012

Mamiko breaks record in Guam Ko'Ko

Mamiko Oshima-Berger returned to the Guam Ko'ko' Road Race and had a record run in yesterday's half marathon event.

Oshima-Berger, who missed the 2010 and 2011 editions of the 21.0975-kilometer race, clocked in at 1:34:00, crushing the 1:38:38 she recorded during her debut in the annual run in 2009.

Besides eclipsing her time, the Saipan long distance runner also finished second out of 74 entries in the women's 40 to 49 age group, behind by only 36 seconds against Japan's Futaba Aoki (133:24). Oshima-Berger, who ruled the sub-master division of the same event in 2009, was also ranked sixth out of 351 female finishers and No. 36th overall out of 854 finishers.

Also completing the Sunday race were Mamiko's husband, Joshua, and Ketson “Jack” Kabiriel. Kabiriel submitted 1:42:04 to place at No. 15 (out of 133) in the men's 30 to 39 age group, was 54th in the men's race (out of 503), and 69th overall. Joshua came in at the 2:11:54 mark and was at the middle of the pack (36th) in the 67-runner field in the men's 50 to 59 division.

Japan's Masashi Shirotake was the overall finisher of the weekend race with a blistering time of 1:11:26, while Guam's Amy Atkinson ruled the women's field, crossing the finish line at 1:28:05.

Yesterday's morning race brought more than 1,000 runners to the four villages in Guam: Tumon, Tamuning, Hagatna, and Asan. According to Ko'Ko's website, the course started and ended at the Gov. Joseph Flores Memorial Park at Ypao Beach in Tumon with runners going for hill climb and rolling slopes for the first two kilometers. The succeeding kilometers were flat with runners passing through, Tamuning, Marine Corps Drive, and Hagatna before making a turn back to the course in Asan. Then in the last few kilometers, finishers were greeted by a couple of hill climbs and a downhill slope.