O’Sullivan, Taflinger fastest in Mangrove 5K

Pastry chef Jody O’Sullivan cooked it up on the course and topped the Run Saipan Mangrove 5K ‘24 race last Saturday.

Meanwhile, youngster Addalee Taflinger was the fastest female on the course from American Memorial Park, through Smiling Cove Marina, then to the Gov. Eloy Inos Peace Park and back.

O’Sullivan sprinted to the finish line in a break-neck time of 17:13, followed by Landen Taflinger at 18:40, then Jordan Ruiz topped off the Top 3 men’s with a time of 19:15.

Addalee finished with a time of 21:02; An Bang was second at 22:46; and third place was Angela Taflinger who clocked in at 23:54.

O’Sullivan, a finalist on Season 8 of the Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship, has been racking up first place wins in foot races he’s joined in Saipan so far. He said of this most recent race, “I liked the later start time. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking the 6:30am start time is ideal.”

The course, which he’s familiar with, “was lovely. It was nice and flat. The concrete makes a huge difference, it really does.”

O’Sullivan led the whole way but said Landen and Ruiz really pushed through the first turnaround, and still managed to stave them off.

With a bunch of races stacked in March and April, the Hyatt Regency Saipan pastry chef said he’ll be joining the 2024 Saipan Marathon’s half marathon race next week. Then, “we’ll see from there how my body’s moving after that.” Run Saipan Edward Dela Cruz Jr. “has really stacked everything one on top of the other. I might have to be a little more selective, but Run Saipan’s done such a great job. It’s kind of hard to say no because everything’s so well organized,” said O’Sullivan.

As for Saipan International School student-athlete, Addalee, she returned to first place form in this race after topping all three of the Run Saipan Trinity ‘24 races last January.

This was her first time running the Mangrove 5K course and was confused for a bit but found her way and was still the fleetest female afoot.

“The race was good. There were a lot of turns,” she said. She was in the lead the whole time amongst the female runners, but on one turnaround, Bang, who came in second, was about 200m behind her.

The 13-year-old middle school student said she is joining the 10K event of the upcoming 2024 Saipan Marathon.