Saipan Tribune

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Volunteers prep up for XTERRA Saipan

Volunteer work on the island is at its finest this month, as residents prepare for the hosting of the 2013 XTERRA Saipan Championship set for March 9.

Trail clearing jobs along the XTERRA bike and run courses are on-going, meetings have been set, homestays are being arranged, and other details about the off-road triathlon even have been iron out to make sure of the successful staging of XTERRA World Tour's Crown Jewel.

“Hats off to the volunteers for devoting their time and effort in getting everything ready for XTERRA Saipan. Everyone is doing its share of volunteer work just to keep XTERRA here and give our visiting athletes a good experience,” said Brad Ruszala, vice president of Taga, Inc., which is the main organizer for XTERRA Saipan as well as Tagaman.

Ruszala attended XTERRA/Tagaman (Saipan Sportsfest) organization meeting yesterday, joining more than 20 individuals from both the private and public sector, to discuss preparations for the two events.

“We're moving forward, but we have a lot of things to do. We're working on the aid station, traffic control, trail clearing, registration, awards banquet, and other important details about XTERRA and Tagaman. We need volunteers to help us and we will be making announcements to arrange a series of meetings with them,” he added.

As for the courses, Ruszala said majority of them are ready and the rest will be needing a few more work.

“Wireless Ridge is open. Lamar Section is almost done, thanks to Bobbi, Kimi, Kaity, and Brian. Bananarama still has banana trees crisscrossing the trail, McDick is vine and random pointy limb central, and Ho Chi Minh has changed quite a bit since last planting season. We also need to cut the trail on the backside of Mt. Tapochau,” Ruszala wrote in an email to members of the CNMI triathlon community.

Trail clearing works will continue this Saturday and Ruszala is requesting volunteers to be at the old parking lot of the NMI Retirement Fund Building in Capital Hill at 8am. Today, some volunteers will work with Division of Parks and Recreation staff to do chainsaw and bush cutting jobs along the bike and run course in Navy Hill.

The bike course of XTERRA Saipan (championship course) will cover 32 kilometers with bikers going as far as Mt. Tapochao and negotiating tricky trails in Navy Hill and the single track sword grass in the breathtaking “Sound of Music” The 12K run leg will cover some treacherous ravine in Navy Hill and the famous World War 2 tunnels in Chinatown, while the 1.5K swim will take place at Micro Beach.

For more information, visit www.saipansports.com or send email to Bill Sakovich at swimsak@yahoo.com or Brad Ruszala at bradinthesand96950@yahoo.com.