4 to represent CNMI in XTERRA World

Peter Prestley smiles at the camera as he negotiates the bike course of this year’s XTERRA Saipan Championship. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The Commonwealth has four entries to the Sunday (Monday on Saipan) competition in the debuting Kimiko Hasegawa-McKagan, Kaity Mattos, and Eric Cooke and returnee Peter Prestley. The four triathletes earned slots to XTERRA World after their notable performance in XTERRA Saipan early this year. The four CNMI bets will be reunited with XTERRA Saipan participants Ben Allen, Dan Hugo, Jacqui Slack, Carina Wasle, Renata Bucher, and Mieko Carey in Maui and will race against hundreds of triathletes from around the world, including defending champions Ruben Ruzafa of Spain and Nicky Samuels of New Zealand.

Prestley, Mattos, and Hasegawa-McKagan have been training together for months for this weekend’s event, while Cooke is on his own as he is now based in Idaho.

“Peter, Kaity, and I have been doing long rides on weekends with our training buddy Bob Ferrer and doing hill repeats on weekdays, so I hope these will help us a lot,” said Hasegawa-McKagan, who does not have a target time for XTERRA World as she just aims to complete the race crash-free.

“My target is to enjoy the race and finish without injury. I crashed four weeks ago when I was riding the bike and fell on my shoulder. Now, swimming will be harder but I’ll do my best. I have never swam in an ocean with high surf and the exit and entry in the surf will be a challenge for me,” she added.

Hasegawa-McKagan also said she is motivated to finish the race and hang out with the XTERRA family from all over the world, including Allen and Slack, who home stayed with her and her husband Steve for the last couple of years.

While Hasegawa-McKagan did not set a target time in her debut, Prestley is eyeing the under four-hour mark.

“This year, I hope having a little experience on the course will give me an edge. I’m certainly shooting for under 4 hours and would be very happy with a time around 3:30,” said Prestley, who timed in at 4:06:46 to finish at No. 49 out of the 74 triathletes entered in the men’s 40 to 44 age group.

Prestley, who was with Lewie Tenorio and Butch Sublemente last year, had split times of 28:41 (1.5-kilometer swim), 2:28:29 (30K bike), and 1:09:36 (10K run). This year’ he hopes to finish faster in the swim race at the D.T. Fleming Beach.

“I’ve been working on my swimming a lot this year, and expect to get out of the water 4-5 minutes faster than last year. I also expect to take about a minute off my transition times. Getting out of the swim early is critical for having a good bike time because the trail is a lot of single-track and passing can be challenging, especially going uphill,” Prestley said.

“Last year, I had one bad crash, so hopefully I will be a bit faster if I stay on the bike and don’t have any technical issues. I’ve been training on hills for the last few months, so I’m feeling confident I can handle the uphills. One disadvantage this year is that they have moved the starting time back from 8:30am to 9:00am so the course will be a bit hotter earlier. Last year was really hot,” he added.