{"id":381641,"date":"2022-12-15T06:01:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=381641"},"modified":"2022-12-15T06:01:01","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:01:01","slug":"antonio-strikes-gold-in-tour-of-guam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/antonio-strikes-gold-in-tour-of-guam\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonio strikes gold in Tour of Guam"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Florence Antonio, right, negotiates the 42-kilometer short course of the 2022 Tour of Guam last Sunday.\u00a0(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMighty Man\u2019Amko\u201d Florence Antonio made sure the CNMI won\u2019t go home empty-handed when he won the men\u2019s 60-69 division short course of the 2022 Tour of Guam last Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old board member of the Triathlon Association of the CNMI completed the 42-kilometer course in 1:49:41.9, good enough for gold in the five-cyclist division\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am turning 64 in four months. I dedicate my win to all my friends and family and to the CNMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Zambales, Philippines native said there\u2019s really no secret in keeping his active lifestyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe secrets are regular exercises, proper diet, rest, relaxation,\u00a0 and peace of mind,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Antonio shared that his strategy coming into the Tour of Guam was to do regular exercise, complete rest, and relax while racing to save energy in the end.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more impressive is Antonio continues to compete even after surviving stage 3 prostate cancer and grade 4 internal hemorrhoids, two surgeries to remove part of his gallbladder, inguinal hernia that resulted in five major surgeries, and a major car-bike accident in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Antonio first came to Saipan on June 13, 1982, as a heavy equipment mechanic and operator. He now considers the CNMI his home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to encourage people to live an active lifestyle despite your health issues. It\u2019s the key to a longer and fulfilling life,\u201d he was quoted by TAGA Plus in a 2021 issue.<\/p>\n

Northern Mariana Islands Cycling Federation official and Team NMI manager Jay Diyco congratulated Antonio for the latest feather in his decorated cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations for winning his age group. He is a great inspiration to everyone. To the whole team congratulations as well and thank you for representing the CNMI,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from Antonio, also making the trip to Guam to compete in the 2022 Tour of Guam were Rusty Valino, Jojo Valencia, Nelson Pagaduan, and Diyco himself.<\/p>\n

Gabe Cubacub was the overall winner of the short course after pedaling to the finish line in 1:27:05.5. Yoon Heon, meanwhile, beat 141 other cyclists in topping the 105-kilometer long course in 2:56:17.4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMighty Man\u2019Amko\u201d Florence Antonio made sure the CNMI won\u2019t go home empty-handed when he won…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":381622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-381641","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\/381641","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}