{"id":32449,"date":"2014-04-15T08:36:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T00:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tribune.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=32449"},"modified":"2014-04-15T08:36:58","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T00:36:58","slug":"amputee-finishes-tagaman-triathlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/amputee-finishes-tagaman-triathlon\/","title":{"rendered":"Amputee finishes Tagaman Triathlon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Japan\u2019s<\/a>
Japan\u2019s Miho Hamada celebrates as he nears the finish line of last Saturday\u2019s Tagaman Triathlon. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An amputee drew the loudest cheers at the finish line of last Saturday\u2019s Tagaman Triathlon.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s Miho Hamada, who wears a carbon fibre running blade, completed the Olympic distance race in 4:47:48, leaving those at the finish line snapping photos of him in awe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow,\u201d Jing Bordon exclaimed while shooting footages of Hamada\u2019s finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very inspiring,\u201d said J.M. Guerrero, one of the founders of Tagaman.<\/p>\n

It was not the first time that Tagaman lured a participant with special needs, as Japanese Hirotaka Sugimoto, who was blind, did the race in 1989, while tied to his guide. The then 69-year-old\u2019s moving tale happened again in the silver anniversary of Tagaman as the brave Hamada negotiated the course. He timed in at 15:43 in the one-kilometer swim, placing ahead of 24 other swimmers. In the 40K bike, Hamada, who entered the 40 to 49 age group, submitted 1:52:09, which was faster than seven others. He had the slowest time in the 10K run after tallying 2:22:46, but he was undoubtedly the most photographed at the finish line where his wife and daughter waited for him. The Japanese \u201cblade triathlete\u201d even finished ahead of an able participant.<\/p>\n

Bucher, Epperson rule divisions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guam pro Charlie Epperson and seven-time XTERRA Saipan champion Renata Bucher topped the men\u2019s and women\u2019s divisions of the Olympic distance course.<\/p>\n

Epperson cut the tape at the 2:20:58 mark to beat 44 other individual finishers, while Bucher was the second overall finisher with her time of 2:31:06. The Guam pro had split times of 12:08 1:24:37, and 44:13 to beat Japan\u2019s Danai Kuangparichat (2:37:26), Korea\u2019s Yu Hun Park (2:39:37), Saipan\u2019s Peter Prestley (2:42:33) and Nap Dizon (2:43:30), and Guam\u2019s Oliver Cerbo (2:44:34).<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019 division, Bucher, who recorded split times of 12:11, 1:24:13, and 54:42, prevailed against Korea\u2019s Eun Keong Sung (2:34:51), and Saipan\u2019s Kaitlin Mattos (3:05:13) and Kanae Quinn (3:08:13).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, six other female triathletes completed the Olympic distance course. The list includes Saipan\u2019s Amy Sletten (3:00:21), Kathy Ruszala (3:46:58), Shawna Brennfleck (3:33:17), and Lori Hutchison (3:03:47), and Japan\u2019s Emi Kawakita (4:11:36) and Kiyomi Watanabe (3:18:31).<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s division, 28 others made it to the finish line led by top placers (different age groups) Jerome Diyco (2:47:33), Eric Cooke (3:14:05), Yudai Ono (3:30:49), Jae Yeong Jeong (2:47:32), Shinji Nonomura (2:59:14), John Arceo (3:05:16), Paul Anthony (2:52:09), Manny Sitchon (3:14:05), and Joshua Berger (3:24:43).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An amputee drew the loudest cheers at the finish line of last Saturday\u2019s Tagaman Triathlon….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":32459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-32449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-guam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32449","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=32449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}