{"id":194270,"date":"2015-03-19T04:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T18:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=194270"},"modified":"2015-03-19T04:00:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T18:00:42","slug":"allen-eager-to-try-longer-tagaman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/allen-eager-to-try-longer-tagaman\/","title":{"rendered":"Allen eager to try longer Tagaman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian pro Ben Allen is raring to race in the Half Ironman event of this Sunday\u2019s Tagaman Triathlon after missing last year\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/a>
Australian pro Ben Allen poses for a photo at the finish line of this Sunday\u2019s Tagaman Triathlon. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m coming into this year\u2019s race confident and excited to tackle the new distance,\u201d Allen said in an interview with Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Tagaman Half Ironman course features a 1.9-kilometer swim, 90K bike, and 21K run. The longer course had its debut last year in celebration of the event\u2019s silver anniversary.<\/p>\n

Despite failing to join last year\u2019s inaugural Half Ironman event, Allen believes he is ready to conquer the longer and more punishing course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m no stranger to racing on off-road, long or short distance races. I pride myself on being a versatile triathlete. I race at the elite level on the world stage in every distance and every multiple discipline event on earth. I have experience and knowledge, giving me an edge over my competitors,\u201d added Allen, who arrived on Saipan early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Before coming to Saipan, Allen competed in the Philippines and various races across the Land Down Under this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have started my season, developing and trying different things, fine-tuning my race skillset. I\u2019ve been in the sport for five years and I am always learning and getting stronger,\u201d the 30-year-old triathlete said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the first time I participated in the race back in 2013, pushing my body and mind to its maximum limits. The thrill of crossing the finish line and achieving the unthinkable is inspiring. I\u2019m hungry to chase that same feeling again this year,\u201d the Wollongong native added.<\/p>\n

Allen, who thanked husband and wife Steve and Kimiko McKagan for opening their home to him and girlfriend and fellow triathlete Jacqui Slack, will be batting the men\u2019s division championship against last year\u2019s runner-up Aleksandr Dorovskih of Russia and three other pros. Dorovskih timed in at 4:24:16 in the 2014 raced won by Korean National Team member Ju Seoj Kim (4:15:59). Joining Dorovskih and Allen in the men\u2019s pro field are Korea\u2019s Kaon Cho, New Caledonia\u2019s David Esposito, and Japan\u2019s Shishin Miyagi. A few more age group participants from Japan, Korea, and Guam are also competing in the longest triathlon event in the CNMI.<\/p>\n

Ninety-seven have registered so far for this weekend\u2019s Tagaman, which will also feature an Olympic distance race for individual and team divisions. The Olympic distance will cover 1.5K swim, 40K bike, and 10K run legs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian pro Ben Allen is raring to race in the Half Ironman event of this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":194272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3075,170,3076,831],"class_list":["post-194270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ben-allen","tag-japan","tag-korean-national-team","tag-tagaman-triathlon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}