{"id":272537,"date":"2018-03-23T06:04:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T20:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=272537"},"modified":"2018-03-23T06:04:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T20:04:54","slug":"impressive-pro-field-tagaman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/impressive-pro-field-tagaman\/","title":{"rendered":"Impressive pro field in Tagaman"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-272537 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\/impressive-pro-field-tagaman\/tagaman-pix2-2\/'>Tagaman-pix2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-272541'>\n\t\t\t\tParticipants, organizers, and sponsors of the 2018 Tagaman Triathlon pose for a photo during a press conference yesterday at the Kanoa Resort. (Contributed Photo)\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\/impressive-pro-field-tagaman\/tagamanpix-7\/'>Tagamanpix<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-272542'>\n\t\t\t\tFrom left, Tan Siu Lin Foundation assistant manager Raymond Zapanta, TanHoldings community relations director Carline Sablan, TRAC officials Paul Plunkett and Florence Antonio, and Tan Siu Lin Foundation manager Merlie Tolentino pose for a photo after a donation turnover ceremony for the 2018 Tagaman Triathlon. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Returning champ Manami Iijima of Guam might encounter strong opposition in her bid for back-to-back titles in the 29th Tagaman Triathlon that will take place tomorrow and feature a notable pro field.<\/p>\n<p>Iijima is one of the seven women entered in the pro\/elite division and will challenge the much longer 70.3-mile course\u2014spread into a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run. In the men\u2019s field, there are five competitors. The half Ironman distance race will start with the swim from the waters off Kanoa Resort to Kilili Beach and transition to the bike leg from Kilili Beach to Banzai Cliff and back. The run leg is from Kilili to American Memorial Park and back to the finish line at Minatchom Atdao Pavilion.<\/p>\n<p>South Korean Dan Bi Hong, Japan\u2019s Maki Nishiuchi, and four others stand in the way of Iijima\u2019s attempt for a repeat in the Western Pacific region\u2019s longest-running multisport race. Both triathletes have International Triathlon Union world rankings.<\/p>\n<p>Iijima was the second overall in last year\u2019s race (shorter distance), finishing behind fellow returning winner Aleksandr Dorovskikh of Russia (2:12:01.8). The Guam triathlete timed in at 2:12:52 in the 51.50 course or more than eight minutes faster that the Philippines\u2019 Maria Hodges (2:21:04).<\/p>\n<p>In the longer race this Saturday, Iijima will be facing the 29-year-old Hong, who is currently ranked 321st in the world tied with Madalena Almeida of Portugal, Ipek Oztosun of Turkey and Zulanny Rivero of Venezuela. The Korean finished a strong fifth (2:12:22) in the elite women\u2019s division in the 51.50 2017 Asian Triathlon Confederation Triathlon Asian Cup in Sokcho in South Korea. Hong also came in seventh overall in the 16th Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010 in China and was runner-up to compatriot and eventual elite women\u2019s champion A Reum Jo in the 2013 Korea Triathlon National Championships.<\/p>\n<p>Nishiuchi, on the other hand, is currently at No. 114 in the women\u2019s ITU long distance triathlon ranking and came in 14th (6:53:49) in the elite women\u2019s division in the 2015 Motala ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in Sweden. The Japanese also finished seventh in the 2007 Hong Kong ITU Triathlon Asian Cup (2:19:14),  53rd in the 2007 Tiszaujvaros BG Triathlon World Cup (2:09:16) in Hungary, and  10th in the 2008 Gold Coast ITU Triathlon Oceania Cup (2:04:50) in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The former Guam national swimmer Iijima, however, is no pushover as she won numerous races\u2014short distance, marathon, and multisport\u2014and also placed ninth in her age group in last year\u2019s Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She  finished sixth in her first race as a pro in last year\u2019s Ironman 70.3 in Phuket Island, Thailand, and first in her age group and sixth overall in the 2017 Ironman 70.3 Subic Bay in Olongapo, Philippines.<\/p>\n<p>Jo, who is a returning competitor together with compatriot Jiho Hwang, finished sixth in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games in South Korea. She also raced in the ITU World Cup event held in 2014 in Jiayuguan City in northwestern China.<\/p>\n<p>Hwang, meanwhile, had back-to-back first place finishes in the Yeoju City Greatman Triathlon and the Jeju International Triathlon both held in 2016 in South Korea. She also came in at fourth in the women\u2019s pro\/elite in the 2016 Gurye Ironman 70.3 in South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Two-time Hongsung National O2 Triathlon (2016, 2017) and 2017 Gunsan Saemankum Triathlon champ Na Rae Jung and Jin Hyung Kim, a 22-year-old Asian Cup veteran, are the other South Korean female competitors.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in the men\u2019s divison, Kaon Cho is also returning in the hopes of finally winning the Tagaman and dislodging 2017 titlist Dorvskikh. Both have been familiar fixtures in various races on Saipan, including the Hell of the Marianas and the now defunct XTERRA triathlon.<\/p>\n<p>Gyu Seo Choi\u2014another returning South Korean bet\u2014Hong Kong\u2019s Leong Tim Law, and Yu Shinozaki of Japan are also expected to contend for the men\u2019s crown.<\/p>\n<p>Law, a Singapore Youth Olympian, has a long list of achievements in various triathlon races in Asia and even came in third in the Under 23 division of the 2016 Couzmel ITU Aquathlon World Championships in Mexico. Shinozaki is an eight-time Nijima Triathlon champion with his last win coming in last year and he also ruled  the 2016 Goto Nagasaki National Triathlon and the 2016 Tonunoshima Triathlon. The Japanese had fifth (2014) and fourth (2015) overall finishes in Ironman Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Returning champ Manami Iijima of Guam might encounter strong opposition in her bid for back-to-back&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":272541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[169,20545,20546,3756],"class_list":["post-272537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-china","tag-guangzhou-asian-games","tag-ironman-japan","tag-kilili-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272537","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=272537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}