XTERRA Saipan hits home early

Three months and less than one week are all that remain before the finest off-road triathletes come to the CNMI for a shot at the XTERRA Saipan Championship and organizers are already sending out the invitations for what could be the biggest event in the six years since the race came to the Marianas.

While Team Unlimited has maintained contact with the racers by giving them updates through XTERRA Tribe news via monthly emails, hundreds of brochures are hitting mailboxes around the world to spread the word about the local event.

Among the athletes with prominent exposure are three-time champion Olivier Marceau, two-time champ and cover girl Renata Bucher, and Guamanian triathlete Jude Baker, but a number of hometown faces can’t be missed.

The newest face to the CNMI’s triathlon team made the flyer as Lewie Tenorio can clearly be seen flashing his pearly whites and the ever-impressive Stewart Smith is seen taking to the water moments after the canon’s retort sounded the start of last year’s race.

The local racers aren’t the only ones being promoted in the flyers as the race coordinators explained how important the race has become to the XTERRA Global Tour in the past half-decade.

“The last five years of racing in the Western Pacific have solidified XTERRA Saipan as the ‘CROWN JEWEL’ of the XTERRA Global Tour. The Northern Mariana Islands boast one of the planet’s most spectacular natural environments and the race immerses participants in the beauty and history of Saipan.”

Just a month ago, people were talking about their experiences from the Nissan XTERRA World Championship in Maui and now the “Tribe’s” focus has clearly shifted to Saipan’s shores.

The Marianas Visitors Authority’s timely decision to keep the race on Saipan played a key role in the mass promotion of the event as the folks at Team Unlimited immediately changed the XTERRA website after the 2006 World Championship race and replaced it with a poster for the Saipan challenge.

The immediate promotion has sped the local race’s exposure to athletes and sponsors across the globe and much like they have for the past five years of the XTERRA Saipan Championship, triathletes are already inquiring how to get to the CNMI for March’s race and where to stay when they get here.