No. 8 Paddlers dominate in Micro Cup with 16 medals

CNMI paddlers from the Marianas Outrigger Club, Saipan Paddling Club, and the Marianas Pacific Paddlers rowed their boats to 16 medals in the 23rd Annual Micronesia Cup Canoe Race in Guam last October.

MOC hauled the most hardware with four gold medals, three silver medals, and one bronze medal.

They won gold in the women’s 500m sprints, in the women’s 1,000m race, the men’s long distance 10-mile marathon race, and the mixed 1,000m race.

Pipit Ball won a silver medal in the V1 500m sprints; another silver was for the women’s long distance 10-mile marathon race, and in the mixed 500m sprints. Their lone bronze medal was in the mixed long distance 8-mile race.

SPC, for their part, bagged three gold, one silver, and two bronze medals, while their junior boys paddlers—17-year-olds Tyler Andrew and Phillip Aldan—received the Top Junior Paddler awards.

Andrew and Aldan gave SPC two gold medals after topping both the junior boys 500m sprints and the 1,000m; the third gold was for the open men V6 1,000m team; their lone silver medal was in the open women V6 1,000m; and their bronze medals was for the open women V6 500m team, and the open men’s long distance 10-mile team.

To cap the event off against Guam and Palau, the MPP all women’s va’a team bagged two bronze medals in the open women 1,000m and the long distance 10-mile race.