{"id":271796,"date":"2018-03-13T06:06:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T20:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=271796"},"modified":"2018-03-13T06:06:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T20:06:59","slug":"saipan-runners-show-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/saipan-runners-show-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Saipan runners show way"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tania Tan, right, smiles as she completes the half marathon event in last Saturday\u2019s Saipan Marathon. She was joined in the finish line by coach and fellow half marathon runner Ronald Villafria. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though outnumbered by off-island participants, Saipan runners still stood out after making it to the podium and earning age group wins in last Saturday\u2019s 2018 Saipan Marathon.<\/p>\n

In the half marathon race, Saipan had a 1-2 finish in the women\u2019s division with veteran Noriko Jim crossing the finish line first and youth runner Tania Tan coming in at second. Jim, the many-time 10K champion of the same event, opted for a longer race this year and was successful after completing the course, which started and ended at AMP via Beach Road with a turnaround point at Pacific Islands Club, in 1:45:39. <\/p>\n

Tan clocked in at 1:50:48 to place ahead of two tough runners Hyun Ju Kim (1:51:10) of Korea and Xue Xiao (1:54:53) of China. Rounding out the Top 6 (overall rankings in women\u2019s) who were honored at the awards ceremony last Saturday\u2019s night at Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan were two more Saipan residents\u2014 Chiharu Sato (1:55:27) and Sarah Vanderwal (1:56:48).<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s division, Ronald Villafria made the cut in the Top 6 after reaching the finish line at the 1:37:05 mark. Japan\u2019s Genta Saito ruled the men\u2019s half marathon after submitting 1:22:48, while perennial XTERRA and Tagaman participant Aleksandr Dorovskikh of Russia was ranked second following his 1:25:15. Completing the Top 6 are Japan\u2019s Tooru Kase (1:28:00) and South Korea\u2019s Il Hoe Koo (1:29:03), and Jo Min Woo (1:35:34).<\/p>\n

In the age group category, Tania\u2019s mother, Lydia, was the top finisher in the women\u2019s 50 to 59 division after capping the 21.09K race in 2:00:17. Lydia recorded the fastest time among the age group champions, finishing ahead of 20 to 29 winner Misaki Seumasu (2:01:16) of Japan. <\/p>\n

Vianny Mettao was the other Saipan runner who won a division title, as the 11-year-old ruled the women\u2019s 14-and-under category after checking in at 4:40:25. Other age group winners were 15 to 19\u2019s Min Yu (2:37:26), 30 to 39\u2019s Hui Zheng (2:03:31), 40 to 49\u2019s Xiaoqing Duan (2:14:35), and over 60\u2019s Changyub Lee (2:44:52).<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s division, Saipan had three runners earning age group first place medals with Renato Gaviola (1:55:43), John Michael Navarro (2:01:28), and barefoot Chang Whan Jang (1:50:53) dominating the 50 to 59, 14-and-under, and over 60 categories, respectively. China\u2019s Zehua Chen (1:50:34), Yang Li (1:45:25), Hongming Yang (1:37:44), and South Korea\u2019s Jin Gu Ha (1:39:10) reigned supreme in the 15 to 19, 20 to 29, 40 to 49, and 30 to 39 age groups.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the full marathon, Charlie Sendin averted a Saipan shutout in the Top 6 after placing second in the race that also started and ended at AMP with turnaround points at Banzai Cliff up north and PIC down south.<\/p>\n

Sendin completed the 42.195K race in 3:40:47 to finish second behind Japan\u2019s Noriyasu Oda (3:37:51). The Saipan resident and Japanese runners were way ahead of the other Top 6 finishers\u2014Japan\u2019s Ichiro Kubo (3:51:28) and Miyashita Masaki (3:58:20) and China\u2019s Weiyang Zhang (3:52:03) and Guo Ping Ang (3:55:00).<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s division, another Saipan resident, Heather Taylor, came out on top of her category after recording 3:43:27. The 30-year-old Taylor was the only runner in the women\u2019s Top 6 to break the four-hour mark in full marathon, as Yoshiko Yamamori was at distant second with a time of 4:03:59. China\u2019s Quizhen Tong (4:04:24), Shirong Pang (4:08:29), and Zhongxiu Wu (4:13:42), and the U.S\u2019 Heather Popa (4:15:52) rounded out the Top 6.<\/p>\n

In the age group category, Saipan had two top finishers, while Tinian had one. Emily Northrop won the 20 to 29 division after registering 4:42:09, while Alyona Gersonde ruled the 30 to 39 division with her 5:24:23. Tinian\u2019s Kimberlyn King-Hinds got the top honors in the 40 to 49 after submitting 4:20:13, while Japan and China split the last two categories with Kumiko Nakamura (4:51:44) and Suhua Feng (6:25:01) prevailing in the 50 to 59 and over 60 divisions, respectively.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s field, three Saipan residents placed first in their respective age groups with Rommel Buenaflor (4:00:55) winning the 40 to 49 division, Xander Kahn (5:17:34) topping the 30 to 39 group, and Teng Zhang (5:15:39) lording it over in the 15 to 19 class. Japan\u2019s Yoshinori Chitake (4:06:21) and China\u2019s Yanfeng Yin (4:04:16) and Yinbao Sun (4:13:50) were the other age group champions in the second longest race last weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though outnumbered by off-island participants, Saipan runners still stood out after making it to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":271811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[169,170,3134,1241],"class_list":["post-271796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-china","tag-japan","tag-saipan-marathon","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271796","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=271796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}