Noble, Bucher stake PIC Double titles

Andrew Noble of Australia and Renata Bucher of Switzerland will lead a cast of 50 individual entries for this morning’s 20th Tagaman Triathlon.

Noble won the men’s title last year on the way to taking the Pacific Islands Club Double, while Bucher is the women’s defending champion in both the Tagaman and the PIC Double.

Sam Gardner of Great Britain will be out to challenge Noble.

Gardner ran away with the crown in the 8th Annual XTERRA Saipan Championship and ousted 2008 winner Noble, who settled for fourth place.

But the course this time is an entirely different matter and will be a tougher challenge not only for both Gardner and Noble, but also for other triathletes in the field.

Two other pros will have their chance for a taste of the limelight—Jim McConnel of Great Britain and Arland Macasieb of the Philippines.

The race will start with a 2-kilometer swim at the back of PIC.

For the 60-km bike, competitors will go up to Koblerville and back to PIC then passing Coral Ocean Point, the old immigration building, and downhill to the stoplight near Guangdong Hardware.

From there, cyclists will turn left to the gas station, return to PIC and continue along Beach Road on the way to Bird Island.

From Bird Island, cyclists will turn around and proceed to the Grotto, Banzai Cliff, and to the American Memorial Park for the run portion of the race.

The run will start and finish at Micro Beach.

In the women’s side, five-time XTERRA Saipan champion Bucher is expected to make it a one-sided race, as archrival Julie Dibens of the U.K. and U.S. XTERRA champion Shonny Vanlandingham are out of the race due to other commitments.

The only other pro woman entered for the Tagaman is Saipan resident Mieko Carey, who was injured on the bike while going down Mt. Tapochao in last week’s XTERRA Saipan.

Other triathletes taking part in the longest-running triathlon event in the region are Yu-Hun Park, Albert Anton, Ben Distel, Allan Collinson, Daisuke Kawabata, Masami Okada, Tyce Mister, Arakawa Saburo, Joshua Berger, Julia Lendvai, Manny Sitchon, Stan Good, Kanichi Yoka, Akio Matsuura, Noriko Takano, Kiyoko Kawamura, Harayuki Tsuji, Seok-Min Lim, Bym-Suk Lee, Tae-Ok Park, Fred Camacho, Florian Braig, Kevin Carey, Matthew Mancao, Lewie Tenorio, Kimiko Hasegawa, Ronald Villafria, Shogo Ando, Nate Hawley, Susan Blackett, Cho Ka-On, Teishi Kishii, Hideaki Urya, Nasahiro Otani, Terukazo Obata, Yukimari Shimohata, Shigamasa Uda, Kineo Takahiro, Hiroshi Kishibe, Miyuki Fujita, Akihiko Sugiura, Brad Ruszala, and Angelo Villagomez.

A side event for the Tagaman is the Taga Kids Triathlon set during the same morning at the AMP.