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Over 200 sign up for Ironman Saipan
A biker negotiates an uphill road in San Roque during a race last year. This weekend, the northern side of the island will be busy with the staging of the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Saipan. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
More than 200 will be racing in the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Saipan this Saturday.
As of March 1, 179 have signed up for the individual race and majority of them are from Japan. Other triathletes coming to Saipan to compete in the qualifying event for the 2017 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship are from Guam, Thailand, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, the U.S., Canada, and France.
There are also a few local triathletes joining the individual race this weekend, several Saipan teams (27 individuals) are entered in the relay contest. C’K’s Claire Devey, Kate Freeman, and Claire Johnson are among them and will be racing against Winners’ Colin Thompson, Tony Stearns, and Steve Pixley, Kanoa/Fiesta’s Pathola Joab, Willy Barbo, and Ronald Villafria and teams from Japan, Korea, and Thailand.
Ironman 70.3 Saipan will start with a two-lap 1.9-kilometer swim at Pau Pau Beach, while the bike and run courses will cover distances of 90K and 21.1K.
Swimmers will face a triangular course with the first and third sides covering 320m each and the second measuring 310m. Cut-off time for the swim leg is one hour and 10 minutes.
For the bike leg, riders should finish the course by the fifth hour. The bike course will bring participants from the transition area at Pau Pau Beach to the scenic sites down Marpi, including the Banzai Cliff, Bird Island Lookout, and Grotto. From Marpi, bikers will head down south up to the Pacific Islands Club and will negotiate the southern route twice before heading back to the start/finish line for the transition to the run leg. The run leg will be two laps, from Pau Pau to the Elbow Road in Marpi and back.
This weekend’s event is an age group competition with the top finisher in the men’s and women’s in 15 categories earning slots to the 2017 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Sept. 9, 2017. The qualifiers from over 100 Ironman 70.3 races and 185,000 registered participants, will be among the more than 4,000 that will see action in the September event.
The race will start at 7pm, while check-in time will begin at 5am.
