{"id":225616,"date":"2016-04-18T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T20:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=225616"},"modified":"2016-04-18T06:00:17","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T20:00:17","slug":"mami-gets-5th-saipan-marathon-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mami-gets-5th-saipan-marathon-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Mami gets 5th Saipan Marathon win"},"content":{"rendered":"
A smiling Mamiko Berger is about to cross the finish line of the 2016 Saipan Marathon held last Saturday. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mamiko Berger battled back problems to rule last Saturday\u2019s 2016 Saipan Marathon.<\/p>\n

The long-time runner completed the race from the American Memorial Park to Mariana Resort, Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio, and back to the starting line in 3:15:19, eclipsing her 3:28:19 time last year when she won the same event against several Japanese bets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was aiming to beat my personal best (3:09:49 during the 2012 Saipan Marathon), but I don\u2019t want to push myself too hard after I hurt my back about a week ago. However, I am still happy that I was able to finish and win this race again,\u201d said Berger.<\/p>\n

It was Berger\u2019s second back-to-back first place finish in the 42.195-kilometer race of the annual event. She had her first two straight triumph in the Saipan Marathon in 2008 and 2009 for a total of five, adding her 2012 win. Berger also topped the 50K course of the event in 2013 and 2014.<\/p>\n

Of those victories, this year\u2019s is special as her parents\u2014Satoru and Fusae\u2014saw her crossed the finish line of Saipan Marathon for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis win is for them and to those who have been supporting me since I started joining Saipan Marathon in 2006,\u201d said Berger, who initially considered quitting running once she is done with last Saturday\u2019s race as she has logged a lot of miles in more than a decade of hitting the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking to quit because I feel like I am tired, but after doing this race, I changed my mind. I will continue to run,\u201d the 46-year-old runner said.<\/p>\n

Berger was never threatened in the women\u2019s division race, making it to the finish line nearly 10 minutes ahead of runner-up and Japan\u2019s Satomi Oka (3:24:56). Another Saipan-based runner, Sakiko Eda, came in at third in her first marathon after submitting 3:53:28, while Japan\u2019s Mariko Mori (4:07:49), Miyuki Kudo (5:34:10), and Kanako Hirata (5:37:17) rounded out the Top 6 in the women\u2019s ranking.<\/p>\n

Berger placed second overall behind men\u2019s division champion Haruki Okayama, who was the only runner to complete the marathon in under three hours with his 2:42:12. Okayama won against fellow Japanese Hiroaki Sano by a big margin, as the latter clocked in at 3:24:55. Three more Japanese runners and one Chinese bet made it to the Top 6 with Shinobu Sueyoshi coming in at third (3:38:02), followed by Chung Hua Huang (3:31:25), Goshi Sato (3:41:00), and Hisashi Matsuura (3:42:06).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Saipan\u2019s Lorie Hutchinson topped the women\u2019s 50K after logging 4:28:26. She prevailed against Japan\u2019s Juri Tajima (4:50:04), Nozomi Yatabe (4:54:27), Sachi Nohara (6:01:52), and Masako Duko (6:27:42), and China\u2019s Hongtao Zhang (5:41:27).<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s division, Masayaku Abe broke the four-hour barrier (3:39:22) to finish on top of the entire field. He defeated fellow Japanese runners Masato Ueda (4:48:26), Takashi Kano (5:03:25), Toru Aizawa (5:05:20), Tsuyoshi Asada (5:10:31), and Shinya Yura (5:19:42).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mamiko Berger battled back problems to rule last Saturday\u2019s 2016 Saipan Marathon. The long-time runner…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":225644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10965,10966,4175,3134],"class_list":["post-225616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-japanese-hiroaki-sano","tag-juri-tajima","tag-mamiko-berger","tag-saipan-marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225616","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=225616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}