{"id":401021,"date":"2023-11-29T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=401021"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Redemption-records-set-by-Tan-in-5-000m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Redemption-records-set-by-Tan-in-5-000m\/","title":{"rendered":"Redemption, records set by Tan in 5,000m"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONIARA, Solomon Islands\u2014<\/strong>Gold, check; NMI and Pacific Games record, double check; redemption, triple check.<\/p>\n

Redemption was all that mattered to track star Tania Tan as she ran 12.5 laps around the National Sports Stadium into first place and into the hearts of many last Monday night.<\/p>\n

Clocking in at 18:08.69, the University of Hawaii master\u2019s student had a commanding lead over a dozen other athletes throughout the race, with silver medalist Papua New Guinea\u2019s Scholastica Herman a good 30 seconds behind her at 18:30.93. Bronze went to New Caledonia\u2019s Deborah Kaboer at 19:03.46.<\/p>\n

To top it off, her time broke the old Pacific Games 5,000m standard of 18:20.09 set by Solomon Islands\u2019 Sharon Firisua in the 2015 Pacific Games. Tan also reset the Micronesian Games record of 18:51.75 that was set in 2014 by Christina Wicker in Palau.<\/p>\n

From not finishing her 10,000m race in the 2022 Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games and being sent to the ER, the 22-year-old said this time around\u2014not being sent to the ER was her main motivation\u2014and redemption came in swift and sweet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to hang on and not go to the ER last like year. But I was like, \u2018go big, or go home. You have nothing to lose Tania. Last year, you didn\u2019t even finish the race, so at least finish this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tan added that her win \u201cfeels surreal.\u201d She said it felt even more so when they played the CNMI national anthem for everyone to hear during the ceremony. \u201cIt\u2019s not only for me\u2014it\u2019s for everyone back home too and I\u2019m so super happy,\u201d she said with an emotional look in her eyes.<\/p>\n

On breaking not only the CNMI record but also the Pacific Games record, she said she is \u201cextremely honored.\u201d She said she didn\u2019t even know she broke the record until breakfast yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank everyone back home for constantly supporting and cheering us on,\u201d said Tan. She added that so far in the Solomons, \u201cit\u2019s been pretty good. Everyone here has been really nice and welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout her race, Team NMI cheered her on from the stands and exploded into an even louder cheer as she crossed the finish line first. Tan couldn\u2019t even catch a breather as right after, local media couldn\u2019t wait to get a word about her win.<\/p>\n

Tan arrived in the Solomons last Nov. 25 along with beach volleyball\u2019s Logan Mister and Andrew Johnson and is leaving with the team on Dec. 3 via charter back to Saipan.<\/p>\n

She is set to compete in the 10,000m race later today.<\/p>\n

With Day 1 of athletics out of the way, three other NMI athletes took to the track and broke their own personal best times.<\/p>\n

Casey Cruz went up first for the NMI\u2019s athletics team in the women\u2019s 100m race and set a new best time of 13.07 seconds and came close to finishing third in her heat. She said of the race, \u201cfor my first off-island competition, it was a really humbling experience. It was something new to me because I was going up against other people that I don\u2019t normally go up against.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theodore Rodgers also broke his personal best in the men\u2019s 100m race with a time of 11.52 seconds. He said that it was an \u201camazing competition\u2026 it was a nice experience\u2014I\u2019ve never been on like that big of a stage.\u201d He added that for his 200m race today, he wants to break Tyrone Omar\u2019s CNMI record of a little over 22 seconds.<\/p>\n

Andrew Camacho broke his record in the 100m race as well at 11.55 seconds.<\/p>\n

For athletics coach Greg Iginoef, he said the team did well on their first day of athletics events. He was happy they broke their PB\u2019s and thanks the Tuvalu coach who\u2019s been helping the team during their training, and also thanked Dr. Ron Snyder and Elias Rangamar of Northern Marianas Athletics. For Tan\u2019s gold medal run, he said, \u201cI\u2019d like to thank Tania for coming out. I know she\u2019s in school in Hawaii and she took time out just to come and represent. Thanks Tania and thanks to her coach, Kim Boyce, and her school for letting her come out and represent her [island] nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golf\u2019s Jin makes Top 10<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

Although there was no medal for golf this time around, up-and-coming golf star, 16-year-old Zhi Min Jin placed in the Top 10 of the women\u2019s division out of more than 30 competitors at the end of Round 4 last Saturday at the Honiara Golf Course.<\/p>\n

She capped the competition with a total of 313. Jin said of her competition, \u201cI feel great to place eighth against the other amazing players. It wasn\u2019t the best course condition as well so I\u2019m just proud that I managed to score in the 70s for the four days. Competition was alright; loved playing with new people.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s division, Franco Santos was the best finisher at No. 15 with his total score of 312; Joseph Sasamoto scored 323; Ben Jones Jr. had 328, and Joe Camacho finished at 334. The team finished eighth overall.<\/p>\n

Marco Peter, the team\u2019s manager said, \u201cI was really proud of what Zhi was able to do\u2014going from a 79 to shooting a low 77 on a really tough course. I think she has a bright future ahead of her because she has one of the most fluid swings. Everyone in the tournament said so too\u2014they see her swing and said she\u2019s going to be a really good player. She\u2019s only 16 years old and she\u2019s able to keep her composure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, he said, the team \u201cdid okay. They did the best they could on a very big stage. The Pacific Games is just basically our Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tania Tan celebrates at the end of her gold medal finish in the 5,000m event in which she broke Pacific Games and Micronesians Games records Monday evening at the National Sports Stadium.<\/p>\n

-OCEANIA ATHLETICS
\n
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Tania Tan, second left, gold medalist of the 5,000m race poses with Team NMI chef de mission Nick Gross, left, Northern Marianas Athletics general secretary Robin Sapong, and athletics team coach Greg Iginoef after the awards ceremony Monday night at the National Sports Stadium.<\/p>\n

-LEIGH GASES
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONIARA, Solomon Islands\u2014Gold, check; NMI and Pacific Games record, double check; redemption, triple check. Redemption…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401021","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=401021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}