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Mieko tops XTERRA Japan for third time
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Posted on Aug 28 2011
Congratulatory messages flooded the unofficial CNMI triathlon group site and other triathlon website last weekend after Mieko Carey ruled XTERRA Japan Championship for the third straight year.
The Commonwealth triathlete timed in at three hours and 25 seconds in the 1.2-kilometer swim, 25-km mountain bike race, and 10-km run off-road event held Saturday in Marunuma, Gunma Prefecture to claim the women’s championship. Carey’s 2011 winning time was faster than the 3:03:00 she logged last year, and just nine seconds shy of her best time in XTERRA Japan (3:00:16/2009).
“You rock Mieko,” Wolf Mojica, president of Taga, Inc. and one of the organizers of XTERRA Saipan and Tagaman Triathlon, wrote in the NMITF group site. Others members of the group called Carey a “super woman” for winning the event three times in a row and praised her for an amazing job. XTERRA Planet, the official website of XTERRA World Tour, also had Carey’s victory in its headlines, while triathlon.competitor.com carried the same story.
No other details about Carey’s split times were available at press time, but she was the lone female pro entered in the event and finished ahead of tough Japanese amateurs, including former age-group XTERRA World champions Kimiko Matsuda and Keiji Matsuba and former XTERRA Warrior award winner Tae Yoong Kim.
Joining Carey in the winner’s circle was four-time XTERRA World champion Conrad Stoltz of South Africa. Stoltz timed in at 2:18:25 to foil the upset bid of American Will Kelsay, who was just less than two minutes behind the South African, submitting 2:19:41.
Former XTERRA Saipan Championship participants Takahiro Ogawasara of Japan and Great Britain’s Michael Hiscott finished third and fourth, respectively with their times of 2:27:43 and 2:29:51, while Paul David, also of Great Britain, rounded out the Top 5 with his 2:49:47.
The race in Japan was the 11th qualifying event for XTERRA World Championship and 34 triathletes were given slots to the main competition that will take place in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii, on October 23 this year. Carey and Butch Sublemente had already qualifier for XTERRA World, while other athletes will try to gain the remaining slots in upcoming races in Canada, Venezuela, Switzerland, and Utah.
