{"id":198519,"date":"2015-04-07T04:00:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T18:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=198519"},"modified":"2015-04-07T04:00:16","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T18:00:16","slug":"diyco-wants-to-join-more-triathlon-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/diyco-wants-to-join-more-triathlon-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Diyco wants to join more triathlon events"},"content":{"rendered":"

The triathlon bug must have bitten Jerome Diyco really hard as the 15-year-old is looking to join more races after earning a spot in the 2015 XTERRA World Championship in Maui, Hawaii on Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

\"Jerome<\/a>
Jerome Diyco heads to the next portion of the trail run leg of last week\u2019s XTERRA Saipan Championship. Diyco is one of the age group finishers that earned spots in this year\u2019s XTERRA World Championship in Maui, Hawaii. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Diyco, who was the lone competitor in the 15-19 age group, conquered last week\u2019s 43.5-kilometer rain-soaked and muddy XTERRA Saipan course in 4:19:59 to clinch the spot in Maui.<\/p>\n

He was the 24th swimmer who came out of the two-lap swim course clocking 23:46 or 7:49 behind eventual champion and pro Ben Allen of Australia (15:57). He finished the bike and run legs in 2:20:17 and 1:32:39, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cQualifying in Maui made me want to do more of this type of races. I want to join more of this,\u201d said Diyco. \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure at first that I topped my age group. It was a great feeling to know that you qualified for the XTERRA World Championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saipan Southern High School freshman said he had mixed emotions after completing the grueling race and crossing the finish line with no injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have trained for one year for this race. I was a bit slow at first but once I got my rhythm, I felt more comfortable and at ease,\u201d added Diyco, whose strongest part of the triathlon is the bike leg.<\/p>\n

Although, he also tried playing basketball it was in triathlon that he chose to concentrate more after his father and cycling enthusiast, Jay, let him watch triathlon events on television and on Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was a kid, my dad got me into watching triathlon events and it made me want to try the sport,\u201d said Diyco, who started taking up swimming lessons in the third grade.<\/p>\n

He added that his dad also regularly brought him to watch XTERRA Saipan and the Tagaman Triathlon events on island.<\/p>\n

His 1:32:39 record in XTERRA Saipan\u2019s run leg is his best time in a jungle trail course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expected the XTERRA Saipan course to be hard. I\u2019m still getting used to it. But I loved it and it was a great feeling finishing the entire course,\u201d Diyco added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The triathlon bug must have bitten Jerome Diyco really hard as the 15-year-old is looking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":198520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3075,3597,133,831],"class_list":["post-198519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ben-allen","tag-jerome-diyco","tag-run","tag-tagaman-triathlon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198519","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}