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Japanese sweep Rota Half-Ironman
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Posted on Nov 26 2006
Japan’s Masayuki Matsumaru bested all comers and fronted a Japanese sweep of the 13th Rota Blue Half-Ironman Triathlon two weekends ago with an impressive overall time of 4:22:21 along the longest race course in the Marianas.
Matsumaru never surrendered his lead and posted the fastest the fastest times in each of the three disciplines. The speedy Nihonjin was the first to reach the beach after the 2-kilometer open ocean swim with a time of 39:04 and continued to pull away from the pack with an incredible time of 2:15:52 along the hilly 90-km bike course before turning in time of 1:27:25 in the 21.1-km half-marathon.
Matsumaru took the tape nearly 24 minutes before his closest competitor as professional racer and coach Hidea Miyazuka reached the finish line 4:46:08 for second place, while fellow countryman Mikine Yamada placed third at just a shade over five hours with an overall time of 5:00:40.
The competition was just as fierce on the women’s side as Guam’s Shannon Cutting was the first female and third overall with a total time of 4:55:49. Cutting was second out of the water behind Matsumaru with a time of 41:51 and cranked out the third fastest 90-km bike at 2:27:58 before hammering out the fourth best run time along the 21.1-km run (1:46:00).
The Guam gals were represented in the second spot as well as Sandra Reid turned in the second fastest female time and placed fifth overall 5:14:42. The Guamanian dominance was underscored by the gap between second and third place, as Japan’s Shigeyo Muneta reached the finish line more than an hour later at 6:26:18.
Rota’s closest neighbor brought an eight-racer delegation as Robbie Cabreza (5:59:37), Jim Hicks (6:16:01), Grady Donothan (6:54:06), and Guam Triathlon Federation president Eric Tydingco (7:26:12) finished the grueling event. Ramon Camacho also made the trip from Guam but timed out after failing to meet the six-hour cutoff at the second transition.
Only one racer from Saipan participated in the long distance race, as ageless wonder Florian Braig of the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation finished the swim (59:39), bike (2:59:01), and run (2:23:05) 16th overall with a time of 6:21:45.
