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Three get NMASA nod for January
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Posted on Feb 09 2009
Three athletes were named top performers for January during the Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association’s monthly meeting at the conference room of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium Thursday night.
Voted Male and Female Athletes of the Month (January) were swimmer Kai Staal and long distance runner Mamiko Berger-Oshima.
In the Student Athlete of the Month race, there was only one selection in Matt Mancao, who is also a long distance runner.
Staal earned NMASA members’ nod after his exploits in the 2009 Junior Pan Pacific Championships at the Leo Palace Resort Swimming Pool in Guam last month.
Staal eclipsed the CNMI 13 to 14 age group record (57.46 seconds), which he himself set three months ago on Saipan, in the 100m freestyle when he timed in at 57.36 in the preliminary race on Day 2 of the six-day meet.
Staal also joined the 50m freestyle preliminary race and beat rival Ken Barcinas of Guam with the CNMI bet clocking in at 25.86 seconds.
The 14-year-old swimmer was also part of Tsunami Saipan’s 400m freestyle relay team and his 55.93 seconds in the 100m lap past his 100m freestyle mark of 57.36 seconds in the preliminaries.
Mamiko-Berger was named Female Athlete of the Month for winning the Saipan Marathon, the major event in the 2009 Winter Festival of Runs.
She had a record-breaking run in the 42.195-kilometer marathon en route to a successful title defense.
Oshima finished the race that started and ended at Micro Beach at the American Memorial Park in three hours, 22 minutes, and 45 seconds, breaking her 2008 time of 3:51:58.
She outraced Guam’s Noemi Neipert (3:35:35) and Japan’s Satomi Yahata (3:37:06) to win back-to-back titles.
Mancao was also a participant in the Winter Festival of Runs, but raced in a shorter course.
He won the 10K race with a time of 40:36 to beat fellow Saipan runners Steve Pixley (42:01) and Yoshi Suzuki (43:24).
