Taga Inc. hopes to take cue from XTERRA World

Bill Sakovich and Wolf Mojica witnessed first hand how a world-class event like the XTERRA World Championships was run last Oct. 26 in Makena, Maui.

The two Taga Inc. officials are in charge of organizing the Tagaman Triathlon and XTERRA Saipan Championships.

Sakovich, a NMASA Hall of Famer and former Saipan resident who now makes the 50th state his home, said he was impressed how Team Unlimited organized the 2008 XTERRA World Championships.

“XTERRA World is the best. It’s just a super competition and it virtually had no accidents outside of punctured tires. The competition was very keen in both men and women. Too bad our favorite Jamie Whitmore was not able to race as she is battling cancer, but she was there,” he said in an email to the Saipan Tribune.

Sakovich noted that during conversation with members of Team Unlimited and other professional triathletes, XTERRA Saipan kept coming up.

“It was good to meet with Team Unlimited as they truly support the Saipan races—XTERRA Saipan and Tagaman—and still speak of the former as the ‘Jewel of the XTERRA Tour.’ I think we have their support. Both Wolf and I also passed out postcards advertising our events, many already knew about it, and past participants would love to return. They all admit it was one of their favorite and most beautiful events, and we need to capitalize on that.”

All in all, Sakovich said he was elated to take part in the XTERRA World Championships, albeit not as a participant but as an international organizer.

“I can always learn something on running events, and this time was no exception. I think it was really worthwhile that Wolf was able to be there as he has better insight into putting on such a world class event. I think he himself will acknowledge that.”

For his part, Mojica said Taga Inc. should consider holding an XTERRA Trail Run on top of the two local triathlons they are already staging every year.

“One way to make the XTERRA brand name more powerful would be to add an XTERRA Trail Run which would be completely separate from the XTERRA, even at a different time of the year—probably September,” he said.

Mojica said Saipan can accommodate the new event, adding that he already has an ideal trail in mind up in Marpi for the envisioned XTERRA Trail Run.

“There would be slots in this race for age division runners to compete in the World Championship Trail run in Oahu in December. The race would be 13.1 miles and would probably be in Marpi. A friend of mine already mapped out a course. That would be two XTERRA events per year. Some of the organizers in Europe have as many as 11 events per year. But they have a much larger population base, bigger land mass, and easier access via planes, trains, and automobiles than we have here on Saipan,” he said.

Spain’s Ruben Ruzafa (2:37:36) and England’s Julie Dibens (3:03:57) topped the 2008 XTERRA World Championships.

Saipan had three triathletes who took part in the event. Eli Torgeson finished 167th out of 482 finishers with a time of 3:36:03, while the husband-and-wife tandem of Mieko and Kevin Carey crossed the finish line in 3:53:38 and 4:17:06, respectively.