{"id":406382,"date":"2024-03-20T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=406382"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Tania-to-rep-NMI-in-Cross-Country-Championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Tania-to-rep-NMI-in-Cross-Country-Championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Tania to rep NMI in Cross Country Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

The indefatigable Tania Tan is gearing up for the 2024 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 30.<\/p>\n

The CNMI made its debut in World Athletics Cross Country Championships last year, with Tan and Sildrey Veloria as its representatives.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old is once again competing in the 10K senior women\u2019s division, where she finished 82nd last year with a time of 44:41 and a mile pace of 7:12.<\/p>\n

The championships is comprised of the 10K senior men\/women division, the 8K junior men division, the 6K junior women division, and the 4x2K mixed relay division.<\/p>\n

Tan is currently a member of the cross country team as a graduate transfer to the University of Hawai\u2019i at M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n

The two-time gold medalist at the 2023 Pacific Games is \u201csuper grateful\u201d for her selection to compete at the championships. \u201cIt\u2019s not every day you get to compete at a world championship, representing your nation, amongst the best of the best so it\u2019s truly an honor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her preparation consists of incorporating more hills into her runs. \u201cRunning hillier routes and doing hill sprints throughout the week. I\u2019m hoping that will help me prepare for the race,\u201d said Tan.<\/p>\n

As to how she thinks she\u2019ll do in a much colder climate, she said, \u201cI think living and training in Hawaii, in the warmth where it\u2019s also humid, will benefit me when I race in the cold weather in Serbia. People usually run faster times in cooler temperatures so I\u2019m hoping that will also be the same for me!\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her expectation is just to do her best and represent the CNMI as proudly as she can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Championships in any sport is so tough. My fellow swimmers who competed recently in Doha and Fukuoka would know\u2014you have to compete against not only Olympians but Olympic gold medalists and World Champions. Because the level of competition is so high, all I can do is go out there and do my best to represent our islands proudly on the world stage,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For his part, Northern Marianas Athletics coach Elias Rangamar said Tan and Zarinae Sapong, who shattered her PB in the recent 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships, \u201cStand as the prominent figures representing NMA Athletics.\u201d He added, \u201cSince going collegiate [Tan] has steadily been the face of athletics in the CNMI with stellar performances, most specifically at the Pacific Games this past year.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tania Tan runs through the 10K course of the 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia.<\/p>\n

-CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The indefatigable Tania Tan is gearing up for the 2024 World Athletics Cross Country Championships…<\/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-406382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406382","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=406382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}