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Zarinae trains for World Indoors
Zarinae Sapong, left, gets ready at the starting line of the women’s 100m run in last year’s 9th International Association of Athletics Federations World Youth Championships at the Estadio Pascual Guerrero in Cali, Colombia. (IAAF Website)
Zarinae Sapong has been busy with early morning workouts as she prepares for the 16th International Association of Athletics Federation World Indoor Championships set from March 17 to 20 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.
Northern Marianas Athletics national coach Elias Rangamar trains Sapong every 5:30am and is alternating her workout on the track and inside the weight room
Sapong, who will race in the 60m event in Portland, has been a veteran international campaigner and represented the CNMI in the 2014 Micronesian Games in Pohnpei where she won a silver medal as part of the women’s 4x100m relay team that also had Rachel Abrams, Friendly Joy Pena, and Lia’mwar Rangamar as members.
She also competed in the 100m and 200m runs in the 2015 Oceania Area Championships at the Barlow Park multisport facility in Cairns, Australia.
After her competition in Australia, Sapong traveled alone to Cali, Colombia for the 9th IAAF World Youth Championships where she set a personal best record in the girls’ 100m dash. She posted 13.62 seconds, which is about three seconds behind gold medal winner Candace Hill of the Unites States (11.08 seconds). Trinidad and Tobago’s Khalifa St. Fort settled for the silver with a time of 11.19, while American Jayla Kirkland was third at 11.41.
In local competitions, Sapong went home with four silver medals in last year’s 12th Public School System-McDonald’s All Schools Athletics Championship held at Hopwood Junior High School Field.
She placed second to Marianas High School teammate Pena in the 60m (8.27), 200m (30.31) and 400m (1:15:27) runs, and in long jump with a leap of 3.95m against the latter’s 4.15m.
Meanwhile, the 16th World Indoor Championships will be without powerhouse Russia, which was suspended by the IAAF in November last year following a widespread investigation on doping practices among its athletes. The suspension excludes Russia from hosting and competing in IAAF-sanctioned events and could be lifted by the end of March at the earliest.
