{"id":259807,"date":"2017-09-07T06:06:19","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T20:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=259807"},"modified":"2017-09-07T06:06:19","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T20:06:19","slug":"test-limits-konqer-saipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/test-limits-konqer-saipan\/","title":{"rendered":"Test your limits at KONQER Saipan"},"content":{"rendered":"
Organizers and supporters of KONQER Saipan pose for a photo during a press conference for the event yesterday at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Be prepared to push yourself to your limits and overcome the challenge of one of the region\u2019s obstacle course races when KONQER Saipan King of the Hill holds its inaugural event this Saturday at the Gov. Eloy S. Inos Peace Park in Puerto Rico. <\/p>\n

The race starts at 9am at the Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan beach front.<\/p>\n

Organizers are expecting close to 500 joining the inaugural racing event on Saipan. KONQER began in Guam in 2015, was also held for the first time in Koror, Palau in June of this year, and with Saipan\u2019s addition became a three-circuit race.<\/p>\n

Race director Kaz Endo, who is also KONQER Sports\u2019 chief executive officer, said obstacle course races are one of the fastest growing sports events in the world and the third leg of their now three-circuit race offers different levels of challenges to each competitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery obstacle is designed with extreme athletes and weekend warriors in mind. It is made for different sizes and levels. Those who complete the course as an individual can join a team and do it again. Likewise, those who compete in teams can do it individually after,\u201d said Endo in yesterday\u2019s press conference at Fiesta\u2019s executive lounge.<\/p>\n

U.S. military personnel and other embassy staff spending their rest and relaxation days here are also expected to join, taking a cue from the 40 marines that competed in the Palau leg of the circuit. The great turnout in the previous races prompted organizers to make the event a three-circuit race in a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing three events in one year. There\u2019s Palau and Guam, and now we have Saipan. We dream to also have it in other nearby countries like Kona in Hawaii or in Okinawa, Japan. We want to expand KONQER in the Pacific,\u201d said Endo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we\u2019re facing a long road ahead of us but we want to keep the momentum. Everybody can do their share and our events bring a lot of people. That\u2019s why, if there are countries out there that want to host KONQER, we encourage them to come and observe the race in one of the three circuits,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Endo said Enduro, Completion, Business, and Sprints are the four categories of KONQER\u2019s obstacle races with the former the toughest and challenging, drawing a small group of extreme athletes. Completion race is the largest component where majority of participants join since there\u2019s no time involved but only self satisfaction and gaining confidence as you overcome the challenge and finish the obstacle course.<\/p>\n

Business is a competitive team category with companies also using it as a team building exercise for their employees, while Sprints is an obstacle course that includes a lot of running and climbing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery course is different but the Sprints category remains the same, which is composed of 15 obstacles,\u201d added Endo, who was joined in the press conference by KONQER president Kelli Wedd, Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Chris Concepcion, Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan general manager Wendi Herring, Bank of Guam\u2019s Tania David, IT&E\u2019s Melissa Camacho, and Steve Sablan of Saipan Brewing Co.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Be prepared to push yourself to your limits and overcome the challenge of one of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":259810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[51,16025,17424,319],"class_list":["post-259807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-guam","tag-inos-peace-park","tag-konqer","tag-palau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259807","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=259807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}