CNMI sends 3 delegates to World Championships

Northern Marianas Athletics president Ramon Tebuteb leads the lean CNMI delegation to the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea.

Tebuteb, who left Saipan last Sunday, will be attending the 48th IAAF Congress set for Aug. 24 and 25 at the EXCO-Daegu, a world-class, high-tech exhibition convention center. He will be joined in Korea by sprinters Orrin Joseph Ogumoro Pharmin and Yvonne Bennett.

At the Congress, Tebuteb and other representatives of the more than 200 International Association of Athletics Federations members will select the new officers of the IAAF. Senegal’s Lamine Diack is running unopposed for president anew, while six individuals are vying for the four vice president seats. For the lone honorary treasurer position, three are running, while 10 are seeking the six slots in the board.

Besides the election, the proposed changes in the IAAF competition rules and selection of the association’s awardees will also be decided in the two-day affair.

As for the competition proper, both Pharmin and Bennett will see action in the first day of the World Championships this Saturday. The two sprinters will race in the 100m run at the Daegu Stadium.

Pharmin left Saipan for Korea last night and will be running in the qualifying heat in Korea on Saturday at 12:55pm (1:55pm Sapan time).

“This is my second year in track and field and I do not expect a lot because I still have a lot of work and learning to do. The great thing about it is that I still have that desire to do the work and to learn more. However, I do expect to set a personal best in the 100m race,” Pharmin said when asked about his goals in Korea.

Pharmin suited up for the CNMI Team in the 2010 Micronesian Games in Palau and finished fourth in the octathlon competition. In the CNMI National Championships in May, he timed in at 12.69 seconds in the 100m run.

The Commonwealth sprinter has been training with the pool of NMA athletes for the past three months and went through several weekly time trials before he left for Korea yesterday.

Bennett is not part of the NMA athletes training at the Oleai Sports Complex, as she is based in Boise, Idaho. She is expected to arrive in Korea tomorrow, three days before she races in the 100m qualifying heat at 11:30am (12:30pm Saipan time). It will be Bennett’s third stint at the World Championships and she will be aiming to reset the CNMI and Micronesian record (12.52 seconds) she posted in the 2011 Oceania Regional Championships in Apia, Samoa in June.