International support pours in for XTERRA Saipan

World Champions, Global Championship race winners, professionals, amateurs, triathletes, non-athletes, and fans of sport are among the people from Susupe to South Africa interested in keeping the XTERRA Saipan Championship in the CNMI.

While a number of racers who participated in the local off-road odyssey and the 17th Tagaman Triathlon signed a petition to retain the Crown Jewel of the XTERRA Series in the Marianas, even more have joined the cause via the information superhighway.

Two-time XTERRA World Champion and 2000 Olympian Conrad Stoltz, Josiah Middaugh, three-time XTERRA Saipan champion Olivier Marceau, David Henestrosa, Dominic Gillien, Ingrid Rolles, Yu Yumoto, Monique “Pua” Sawicki, and more have already signed on the growing petition.

The list of names already includes people from Japan, Guam, the United States, South Africa, Switzerland, Mexico, China, Australia, Spain, Russia, Canada, the Philippines, Korea, and the CNMI and is addressed to the Marianas Visitors Authority seeking to continue the grueling race on Saipan.

According to Team Unlimited Director of Marketing Trey Garman, no locale has ever opted to end its relationship with the off-road endurance, and now it looks like the MVA is looking for ways to retain what many decision makers referred to as “one of the most successful events in the CNMI.”

The “Renew ‘The Crown Jewel’ XTERRA Saipan” petition states that all who add their name to the list support the continued return of “The Crown Jewel,” XTERRA Saipan for 2007 and beyond as XTERRA affords significant return on investment to the CNMI, provides a growing number of participants and repeat visitors from around the world to Saipan and the CNMI, generates lasting favorable impressions of the CNMI, supports a healthy and positive lifestyle, and highlights Saipan’s natural beauty and hospitality.

The $325,000 price tag for the XTERRA race is the largest item on the MVA’s plate, but the numbers given by Garman during last week’s presentation to the MVA board illustrated how the CNMI gets all of that back during the event and gets a total value of more than $2 million and more than 54 million CNMI impressions.

The measure of success for the race is in the numbers. In the first XTERRA Saipan Championship in 2002 there were a total of 136 participants in the Scramble, the XTERRA Sport, XTERRA Championship, the relays, and the kids’ bike race. This year there were 408 for an increase of 300 percent. The increase in Japanese participation has shot up consistently as well—growing from 10 in 2002 to 100 in 2006. The rest of the international number followed suit with a 350-percent growth rate in 2006—a race that fielded athletes from 13 countries.

The total count of names on the list was nearing 400 as of press time last night, a figure that does not include approximately 200 who signed up at the awards banquet and in the past few days. The goal is to raise 1,000 signatures by June 10, 2007 and you can add you name to the petition online at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/706945192?ltl=1144832523.

If you have already signed the paper petition you needn’t add your name online as all duplications will be removed from the list.