{"id":222731,"date":"2016-03-10T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T20:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=222731"},"modified":"2016-03-10T06:00:51","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T20:00:51","slug":"mamiko-shows-way-in-olympic-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mamiko-shows-way-in-olympic-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamiko shows way in Olympic course"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mamiko Berger heads out to the run course during last Saturday\u2019s 2016 Tagaman Triathlon.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mamiko Berger conquered the Olympic course of the 2016 Tagaman Triathlon in style as she became the top woman finisher among Saipan participants in last Saturday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Berger registered 2:51:02 in the 1.5-kilometer swim, 40K bike, and 10K run to lead Saipan female finishers and take the top honors in the 45 to 49 age group. The 46-year-old winner placed ahead of five others, including former pro division participant Kimiko McKagan, who timed in at 3:07:01 for third place. Berger was the only athlete in her age group to complete the course under the three-hour mark as runner-up Kaoru Takahashi clocked in at 3:05:46. Other finishers in the age group were Hiroko Maeda (3:19:00), Shoko Watanabe (3:56:20), and Clare Summers (4:04:26).<\/p>\n

Berger, who was fourth overall in the women\u2019s field behind South Korea and 20 something triathletes Gyu Ri Kim (2:19:53), Won Jeong Choi (2:26:38), and Dan Bi Hong (2:39:52), had split times of 31:20, 1:35:35, and 43:57. The 2010 Micronesian Games 5,000m and 10,000m gold medalist was among the few athletes to finish the run leg under the scorching heat in less than one hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to push myself in the run leg after taking it easy in the swim and bike races because I am training for two marathons next month,\u201d said Berger, who will compete in the Saipan and Guam marathons set for April 10 and 16 this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was also surprised to find out that I am the top female Saipan finisher. It was a hot race, but a good one. The race was a good training for me and I did well in the bike even though I used an MTB,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, other top age group finishers in the women\u2019s division were Kim, Choi, Shawna Brennfleck, Ayano Braxton, Atsuko Sato, and Yukari Nakajima.<\/p>\n

Nakajima prevailed in the 50 to 54 division after clocking in at 3:39:45 and beating fellow Japanese Rika Fujita (3:55:44). Sato also won her one-on-one showdown against Ayumi Kaga in the 40 to 44 age group as the former submitted 3:11:25 versus the latter\u2019s 3:19:20. <\/p>\n

In the 35 to 39 age group, Brennfleck was way ahead of Tiffany Lin and Kathy Ruszala after logging 3:08:46. Lin completed the race in 3:47:10, while Ruszala recorded 3:51:52. Kim ruled the 19-and-under age group against Saipan youth athletes Angel Marie Tan (2:59:26) and Coume Kaga (3:08:34), while Choi downed compatriot Hong and Kate Freeman (3:17:07)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mamiko Berger conquered the Olympic course of the 2016 Tagaman Triathlon in style as she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":222733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10204,133,10205,831],"class_list":["post-222731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-hiroko-maeda","tag-run","tag-shoko-watanabe","tag-tagaman-triathlon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222731","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=222731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}