Saipan Tropical Ekiden draws 19 teams

Twin comedians Kazuya, second left, and Takuya, third left, of The Touch and another Japanese
celebrity join MVA managing director Chris Concepcion for a group photo during the awards ceremony for the Inaugural Saipan Tropical Ekiden held last Saturday at the Garapan Fishing Base. (Contributed Photo)

The Marianas Visitors Authority’s Inaugural Saipan Tropical Ekiden held last Saturday attracted 19 local and international teams

Sixteen local teams and three from Japan joined the 3-hour relay event aimed at building teamwork and camaraderie and is the newest annual signature event of the Northern Mariana Islands. Teams took off from Garapan Fishing Base at 5pm, traversing through downtown Garapan before sunset and then along the tiki torch-lit Froilan C. Tenorio Beach Road pathway until 8pm.

“The Inaugural Saipan Tropical Ekiden was a success, and it was great to have both local and off-island teams joining,” said MVA managing director Chris Concepcion. “We’re happy to introduce this type of team building competition to the community and hope to see it grow.”

Finishing first in this year’s event with 23 laps in 2:52:38 was Agape Boys A Team, which had Jason Wang Shengen, Alan Zhao Chenxi, Samuel Hu Enze, David Cai Dawei, and Chen Haoyu as members. They were followed by the M-Factor Team of Alex Park, Clayton Izuka, Joshua Abragan, Kennedy Izuka, Enrico Del Rosario, Oliver Lee, Rintaro Miyawaki, Tania Tan, and Malika Miyawaki. The M-Factor, who had MP United Football Club players as members, also completed 23 laps in 2:57:36. Rounding out the Top 3 with 22 laps in 2:54:58 was Team TASI’s Tamio Nishikido, Taro Goto, Takeshi Takano, Hiroyuki Maeda, Sakiko Eda, Haruya Eda, Taro Kubo, Masaki Narita, and Maki Narita.

Other competing teams were fourth and fifth placers Charisou and SALTY’S, Agape Boys C Team, Agape Boys B Team, Fishing Tackle, Sato-Sekiguchi, Tsunami Sprinters, Tiffany’s Swan Song, SHARK, Team HORIPRO A, TAKEDA, Agape Girls A Team, Tsunami Rurtles, Team Inouse, Himawari Badminton Club, Team Takeda, and Ganbare Nippon.

The Top 5 teams won cash prizes and products from Goods for Running from Phiten.

There were 127 runners in the event with 11 of them were Japanese celebrities, and the race was filmed for a 75-minute special that will be aired on July 2, 2016 on nationwide network TV Tokyo.

The participating celebrities were: Goro Noguchi (singer/ NMI Tourism Ambassador), Nobuhiro Takeda (former Japan National team professional football player), Yusuke Inoue (comedian), The TOUCH (Kazuya and Takuya, twins comedians), Maya and Saya Kimura (former Japan National Synchronized Swimming Team member), Nozomi Tachibana (actress and Miss Saipan 2014), Mariya Nagao (actress and former member of AKB48), Tatsunori Fuse (singer/entertainer) and Mac Suzuki (former professional baseball pitcher).

“Ekiden is a popular sport in Japan, and we hope to attract more international teams next year,” said Concepcion. “Our Community Projects Division team has done a great job with this inaugural event and we especially thanked the community and all our sponsors who joined this year’s kick-off.”

The event was also supported by Horipro and NMI Tourism Ambassador Chiaki Nagumo, who helped bring the event to Saipan along with the celebrities from Japan. Event volunteers included Saipan Awadori, Pacific Islands Club Saipan, Kanoa Resort, Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan, Best Sunshine International, and Marianas Health Services.