Athletes compete in off-island tournaments

With major local competitions in off-season, CNMI athletes headed out of Saipan to participate in three big tournaments.

In Japan, Mieko Carey joined the Kaike Triathlon and placed second in the women’s division with a record time of nine hours, 50 minutes, and 49 seconds, which is faster than her 2010 time of 9:56:38.

Carey was in the lead after the 145-kilometer bike race, but lost it in the 15K mark of the marathon due to dehydration. She went on to finish 36th overall among more than 800 finishers and placed better than her 43rd ranking last year.

In Taipei, Taiwan, the CNMI U15 National Team completed its round-robin assignments in the 2011 East Asian Football Federation U15 Youth Tournament and made it to the win column via a 2-1 triumph over Macau.

The CNMI youth strikers dropped their first four games, failing to score against Chinese-Taipei, Hong Kong, Korea, and Guam before going all out against Macau and winning their last game in the round-robin tournament.

Before the tournament in Taipei, the Commonwealth bets were in Japan and played three exhibition games there.

The last to leave Saipan were swimmers Rezne Wong, Victoria Chentsova, and Grace Kimball. The three swimmers will be competing in the 14th FINA World Championship at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai, China.

Chentsova was the first one to see action for the CNMI in the biennial competition, as she swam in the 400m freestyle qualifying heat yesterday.

Wong and Kimball will be participating in their respective races this Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

In tennis, Ji Hoon Heo, who had been off-island for more than a year, studying at the Hawaii Pacific University, is now in Europe for several Europe Futures events. He competed in Europe Futures in Austria and Finland and is heading to Germany and Slovakia next week.

Back in local events, the 2011 Saipan Soccer School Futsal League kicked off last week with 16 teams competing in the inaugural event at the TSL Sports Complex.

The men’s division has Docomo, Wild Bill’s, Thundercats, IT&E Men, Mellow Yellow, Go Green, Red Inter, and Korean Futsal Team. Thai Team, Mellow Yellow, IT&E Blossom, Red Team, Shirley’s A and B, IT&E Awesome, and Kulet’s Team are entered in the women’s division.

In basketball, the 2011 TSL Women’s Summer Basketball League completed its three-round robin regular season with Party Rockers leading the four-team field with their 8-1 record. Other squads entered in the women’s league are Aye Par Battay, Mix-A-Lot, and the Lazy Buttsss.

Still in basketball, the Blue Haus caging continued with its regular season games at the Gualo Rai Basketball Court.