SOCC takes top honors

All of the teams that participated in the 8th Annual Micro-nesian Cup had obstacles to overcome before their paddles ever pulled water in the lagoon. After touching down at the Saipan International Airport, the paddlers from Hong Kong didn’t get to settle in on Saturday morning before saddling up their canoe for the sprint races.

Obubu worked hard to secure the flights and its roster from Palau and wasn’t even able to register until the day of the competition until all six paddlers were confirmed for the event.

The men and women of the Saipan Outrigger Canoe Club didn’t have to worry about making their travel arrangements or accommodations, but they spent countless hours working with the canoe federation and local businesses as members of the Micronesian Cup Organizing Committee.

On top of securing sponsorships and forging partnerships, the crews still had to find time for practice, and they reaped the rewards of their efforts on and off the water by taking a number of the weekend’s top prizes.

The men of the SOCC were without equal in the sprint races as captain Richard Sikkel and his crew out stroked the competition in the 500m and 1,500m finals to sweep opening day for the home team.

In the 1,500m race as they completed all five turns and hit the beach in 8:44.03 but team captain Richard Sikkel didn’t let his team’s success get to their heads.

“We won the 1,500m but we’ve still got to do the 500m. They just came together out there for the race. In practice we always play around with (our turns) and they were just tight,” he said.

Before heading off for the 500m races, Sikkel expressed his confidence in the Water Tigers’ ability to place among the frontrunners based on their success in the early runs.

“Well, we posted the fastest time in the preliminary so we should make a pretty good showing. Definitely in the top three, that’s the plan,” he said.

Sikkel backed up his prediction with a solid performance in the 500m as the SOCC was the fastest team out to the reef and back with a time of 2:31.61.

Despite crossing the channel to and from Tinian twice and circumnavigating Saipan for training, the home team was unable to complete a first place sweep for the weekend as the Hong Kong Island Paddle Club took the long distance event by stroking their way out to and around Managaha before returning to the Saipan World Resort beach at 1:43:52.71.

The combination of two first place finishes and one second proved enough for the SOCC men to garner the first overall finishers on stage during the awards ceremonies at the Saipan World Resort’s Jungle Stage, and they were lauded by their peers for being top notch hosts as well.