{"id":370455,"date":"2022-06-16T06:06:23","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T20:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=370455"},"modified":"2022-06-16T06:06:23","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T20:06:23","slug":"sapong-tarkong-named-nmi-flag-bearers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/sapong-tarkong-named-nmi-flag-bearers\/","title":{"rendered":"Sapong, Tarkong named NMI flag bearers"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Athletics\u2019 Zarinae Sapong, left, holds the CNMI flag alongside va\u2019a\u2019s<\/em> Jason Tarkong after both were named Team NMI flag bearers for the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 opening ceremony.\u00a0(LEIGH GASES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jason Tarkong of outrigger canoe and Zarinae Sapong of athletics will serve as Team NMI\u2019s flag bearers during the Northern Marianas Pacific Games 2022\u2019s opening ceremony set tomorrow at the Oleai Sports Complex.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2021 Northern Marianas Sports Association male and female athletes of the year were bestowed the honor during the Team NMI Presentation held Tuesday night at the Taga Hall of World Resort Saipan.<\/p>\n

Tarkong and Sapong were invited on stage and were seen beaming with pride as they hoisted up the CNMI flags that they will hold in the opening ceremony of the Mini Games.<\/p>\n

Prior to revealing the flag bearers and presenting the NMI teams, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres gave a speech to the athletes and officials in attendance and asked them to give back to the next generation of athletes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have your coaches who have been in your sport for many years and have put their time and love for the sport to show you what experiences they have had. It\u2019s your turn to give back to the community and to the next generation. So, with that said, I want to personally thank all of you. We represent the CNMI and let\u2019s wave that flag all the way\u2026 I love you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the festivities of the night ended, Tarkong, a Marshal Services Division officer, was asked how he felt after being chosen as one of the flag bearers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great honor\u2026 I appreciate it. I was kind of surprised. Maybe it has something to do with that Athlete of the Year [award], I don\u2019t know. I try to represent not only our islands, but\u2026 as a human being, just to be nice and to do good, think positive, and try to share the knowledge with the youth and I love working with the youth. Other than that, I like working with a team and coming up with great ideas about how we can always get better, so to hold the flag and represent the NMI, wow, it\u2019s a great honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarkong jokingly added \u201cSo I\u2019m thankful to my peers, and to those who chose me for it. It was a surprise. We were kind of joking about it\u2026 I thought they would pick someone more handsome, somebody with more hair than me, but\u2026 it was me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was then asked how he felt about the NMI outrigger team going into the Mini Games and he said \u201cTahiti is No. 1\u2026 in Polynesia, and pretty much in the world. So, they have the best times\u2026\u201d He then added, \u201cWallis and Futuna, New Caledonia, Polynesian teams seem to be the best\u2026 and we look forward to competing against the best in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sapong seconded Tarkong when she said it\u2019s indeed a great honor to be chosen as Team NMI\u2019s flag bearer for the Mini Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s really an honor to be able to bear the flag, especially when we\u2019re competing here on our homeland. So, I\u2019m excited to do that. Usually, it\u2019s off-island and we don\u2019t have as many supporters where we\u2019re at. It\u2019s really just the local community and then whoever\u2019s watching us online, but at least here we\u2019ll have our families\u2026 and everybody, so that\u2019ll be exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that she feels ready for the Mini Games after the Oceania Athletics Championships last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been three years since my last competition so it was really an eye-opener for my tune up. I got a look at what I was lacking in and hopefully I can get those fixed. I can do better here,\u201d said the wireless inventory assistant at IT&E.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Tarkong of outrigger canoe and Zarinae Sapong of athletics will serve as Team NMI\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":370461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[257],"class_list":["post-370455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-nmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370455","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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}