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Untalan-Linden tandem wins Leapfrog race
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Posted on Mar 24 2009
Champ Untalan lived up to his nickname and along with his partner, Tom Linden, ruled the second Leapfrog race held last Saturday at Paupau Beach.
Untalan arrived first in the bike-run race, timing in about 45 minutes. Linden then pushed their lead after crossing the finish line in 46:15.
In all the duo, covered a distance of 8.5 miles from Paupau Beach via the Kalabera Road-Pale Arnold Road junction and Banzai Cliff and back.
Their time was better than the 47:23 and 47:56 respectively submitted by inaugural winners Butch Sublemente and Ronald Villafria.
The race involved a two-person team using one bicycle, each alternating the bike and run leg portion of the race. Everyone starts the race at the same time.
Youth athletes Matt Mancao and Federico Fernandez, meanwhile, improved on their fifth place finish the last time around by coming in second.
Villafria and Sublemente limped to the finish line third best after failing to duplicate their success in the first Leapfrog race.
Sublemente said their strategy did not sit well with them. “The distance between us was too far,” he said.
Lewie Tenorio and Florian Brag teamed up anew and improved their placing from sixth to fourth.
Some 22 regular riders from the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation joined the race, including all the organizers that left no one to register their times.
A number of them even brought their personal timers like Linden.
“Our strategy was not to go too far from each other,” Linden said of their win.
Organizer Mamiko Berger, meanwhile, tapped Untalan on the back and said he chose the right partner in Linden.
But Linden, who did not compete in the first staging, said he was the one who selected te youthful Untalan and not the other way around.
It was those kind of gestures that concluded the day’s event.
Most of the riders are gearing up for the upcoming Tagaman Triathlon and XTERRA Saipan Championship next month.
