{"id":265816,"date":"2017-12-05T06:04:51","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T20:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=265816"},"modified":"2017-12-05T06:04:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T20:04:51","slug":"japanese-wins-womens-crown-hk-olympian-dnf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/japanese-wins-womens-crown-hk-olympian-dnf\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese wins women\u2019s crown; HK Olympian DNF"},"content":{"rendered":"
Yasue Nakahara pumps her fist after crossing the finish line first in the women\u2019s division of last Saturday\u2019s 11th Hell of the Marianas Century Cycling Race. (Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Japan\u2019s Yasue Nakahara overcame the Saipan heat and an early crash to rule the women\u2019s pro\/elite division of the 11th Hell of the Marianas Century Cycling Race held last last Saturday.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old, a native of Higashihiroshima City in Hiroshima Prefecture, came in 18th overall and was the 17th pro to finish the race that started and ended at the Mariana Report & Spa. Nakahara\u2019s winning time was 4:01:51 as she joined the ranks of five-time champion Mieko Carey of Guam (2008, 2010, 2014-16), three-peat titlist Jodie Willett (2011-13) and Amber Halliday (2009) of Australia, and Guam\u2019s Susan Seay (2007) by having her name inscribed on HOM\u2019s perpetual trophy.<\/p>\n

Nakahara\u2019s much-awaited battle with two-time Olympian Jamie Wong fizzled out after the Hong Kong bet failed to finish the 115-kilometer race due to mechanical problems on her bike and a flat tire.<\/p>\n

Nakahara also had her misfortunes early in the race, as she crashed with four other cyclists around the 30K mark of the course when she was heading out of the Bird Island Lookout-Grotto turnaround.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not notice that there was someone in front of me. I could not avoid him, it was too late, and four of us crashed. I was focused and concentrating with my ride that\u2019s why I failed to notice the rider,\u201d said Nakahara minutes after crossing the finish line.<\/p>\n

Nakahara, who was surprised to learn that Olympian Wong also joined last weekend\u2019s event, suffered a huge cut on her right arm, and other bruises to her knees and feet. After the early crash, she even thought of dropping out of the race, but had a change of heart. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t. I just got on my bike and restarted,\u201d the Japanese said.<\/p>\n

Nakahara, who rides for Maaslandster International Women\u2019s Cycling Team of The Netherlands in the 2018 season of the European Tour, said the course layout and the extra 15K really pushed her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hard and challenging course. It was also a little bit slippery. There are portions where you\u2019re going to make climbs and you must also learn to control while going downhill. This is a good course for those who want to challenge themselves,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s Chau Yu Ng stepped in for Wong, but could not catch Nakahara and settled for second place with a time of 4:32:50, while Sang Mi Oh of South Korea was a far third at 5:36:37.<\/p>\n

The other female finishers were in the age group of the road bike and MTB divisions, Guam\u2019s Kristian Ingvarsson (40-44) clocked in at 4:15:12 followed by Tsang Hiu Tung of Hong Kong (20-29) with a time of 4:29:20, and South Korean Myung Sook Lee (55-59), who reached the finish line in 4:48:05.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s Jcy Ho topped the 30-39 age group (4:48:30) ahead of Saipan\u2019s Ayano Braxton (5:16:52). Local bet Emily Northrop was second to Tung in the 20-29 age division with a time of 5:14:55. Kimiko McKagan competed in the road bike and conquered the course in 5:26:22, while Glorybel Tan was in the MTB\u2019s 40-44 division and completed the race in 5:59:25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan\u2019s Yasue Nakahara overcame the Saipan heat and an early crash to rule the women\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":265825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[51,338,3963,19331],"class_list":["post-265816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-guam","tag-hong-kong","tag-mtb","tag-olympian-wong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265816","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=265816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}