{"id":248463,"date":"2017-03-17T06:02:50","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T20:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=248463"},"modified":"2017-03-17T06:02:50","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T20:02:50","slug":"70-year-old-qualifies-worlds-amputee-impressive-1st-ironman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/70-year-old-qualifies-worlds-amputee-impressive-1st-ironman\/","title":{"rendered":"70-year-old qualifies for Worlds; amputee impressive in 1st Ironman"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-248463 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/70-year-old-qualifies-worlds-amputee-impressive-1st-ironman\/ironman-pix-1-2\/'>Ironman-pix-1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-248466'>\n\t\t\t\tKazu Miyokawa, left, along with friend and triathlon veteran Imai Masaki pose with their Ironman 70.3 Saipan tokens during the awards ceremony held last Saturday at the Fiesta Resort &amp; Spa Saipan. (Erwin Encinares)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/70-year-old-qualifies-worlds-amputee-impressive-1st-ironman\/ironman-pix-2-2\/'>Ironman-pix-2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-248467'>\n\t\t\t\tUda Hideki of Japan continues in the bike leg after making his turn about at the Bird Island Lookout during Saturday\u2019s Ironman 70.3 Saipan. (Mackenzie Perez)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>You can say that Kazu Miyokawa won his age group by default, as the 70-year-old Japanese triathlete punched his ticket to the Ironman World Championship 2017 by competing unopposed in the super senior division of last Saturday\u2019s inaugural Ironman 70.3 Saipan. <\/p>\n<p>The Japanese veteran triathlete, who has been in the Ironman scene for the past 30 years, finished with a time of 7:31:14. Miyokawa finished the 1.9-kilometer swim in 49:44, the 90K bike leg in 3:38:09, and the 21.2K run leg in 2:55:13.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been training everyday for about 30 years straight,\u201d Miyokawa told Saipan Tribune. Miyokawa said he is in great shape and he owes it all to his routine, which he said basically has became \u201ca part of [my] life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI train everyday and I eat right. I believe eating right is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miyokawa mentioned that he joins two to three triathlons in Japan a year. Given that he finished the grueling race within the cutoff time, Miyokawa would be attending the Ironman World Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee this September.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Amputee finishes 6th in age group<\/strong><br \/>\nMiyokawa\u2019s countryman, Uda Hideki, meanwhile, left fellow triathletes and onlookers alike amazed after the amputee finished sixth in the men\u2019s 30-34 age group.<\/p>\n<p>Hideki crossed the tape in a time of 6:32:04 while using only one arm. His swimming time was 42:09, while his bike split was 3:14:04 before completing the run in 2:30:36.<\/p>\n<p>Competing against his more able-bodied peers, Hideki finished his first Ironman in the Top 50 at 46th place overall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI trained for this specific Ironman for two years. This is my first year joining the Ironman,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune. \u201cIt was so tiring and long. It was very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hideki said he regularly trains for short triathlons in Japan. \u201cI especially concentrate my training on swimming,\u201d he said. \u201cI am happy that I finished the triathlon, but I feel more relieved that it is over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can say that Kazu Miyokawa won his age group by default, as the 70-year-old&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":248466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16014,170,16015,38],"class_list":["post-248463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ironman-world-championship","tag-japan","tag-kazu-miyokawa","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248463","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}