{"id":236769,"date":"2016-09-19T06:00:44","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T20:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=236769"},"modified":"2016-09-19T06:00:44","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T20:00:44","slug":"napu-paddlers-test-mettle-micro-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/napu-paddlers-test-mettle-micro-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Napu paddlers to test mettle in Micro Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_236774\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-236774\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/napupix-300x169.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-236774\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Napu Outrigger Canoe Club members and officials receive cleaning materials from True Value\u2019s Ray Yumul, standing right, during a donation turnover ceremony last week in Garapan. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The youth paddlers of the Napu Outrigger Canoe Club will be put to a test when they compete in next month\u2019s Micro Cup 2016 in the waters off Meyuns Ramp in Koror, Palau.<\/p>\n<p>Napu Outrigger Canoe Club president Ponce Rasa, in an email to Saipan Tribune last Thursday, said their group will be sending both their girls and boys junior teams for the first time in the Oct. 21 to 23 tournament to see how the club\u2019s young guns will fare against the region\u2019s best. Palau, Guam, and the Federated States of Micronesian are also competing in next month\u2019s event and in the past editions of the Micro Cup, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong also used to send teams to the canoe race contest.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to send our Napu kids down to Palau to expose them to the region\u2019s best paddlers in the junior division. They will have the opportunity to measure up themselves againts the region\u2019s finest,\u201d said Rasa, who believes all the participating teams have chances to win in the Micro Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach club puts in the effort to perform at maximum potential and any club has a chance to win at any given time,\u201d the Napu head added.<\/p>\n<p>The Jason Tarkong-coached Napu junior paddling teams are entered in the 500m, 1,500m, and long distance events and they have been training for several months to prepare for the  competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNapu Outrigger Club Junior paddlers practice four times a week or every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. MWF start time is by 430pm, while the adults head in at 5:15pm. Saturday starts time is around 8am and training schedule per day does vary. There are times we may deviate from the norm depending on the weather,\u201d Rasa said.<\/p>\n<p>The club head added that they are still finalizing the rosters for the two teams, but each squad will be  composed of seven paddlers. Napu teams are hoping to leave Saipan on Oct. 19 to have time to practice at the venue. They are also doing several fundraisers, including coin drives and cars wash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to thank the following individuals and groups for their support and generosity: Ray Yumul, True Value Hardware,  Best Sunshine International, Triple B Forwarders, McDonalds of Saipan, Saipan Shipping Company, TSL Foundation, and Pacific Islands Club Saipan,\u201d Rasa said.<\/p>\n<p>Yumul and their family\u2019s company True Value donated cleaning materials that Napu used for its car wash fundraiser last Saturday at the Shell gas station in Susupe, while other donors turned in cash and in-kind donations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The youth paddlers of the Napu Outrigger Canoe Club will be put to a test&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":236774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13422,319,315,13458],"class_list":["post-236769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-micro-cup","tag-palau","tag-ray-yumul","tag-true-value-hardware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236769","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=236769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}