MOC paddlers triumph

Marianas Outrigger Club members paddle their way to the finish line of last Sunday’s long distance course in the 19th Micronesia Cup held at Matapang Beach in Guam. (Contributed Photo)

Marianas Outrigger Club nearly swept the men’s competition anew after ruling two categories in the 19th Micronesia Cup held over the weekend at Matapang Beach in Guam.

MOC paddlers, who made history in last year’s event in Palau after prevailing in all three races in their division, topped the 500m finals and the long distance event and finished second in the 1,000m of the 2017 edition of the annual tournament.

“I’m very happy with our performance. While we didn’t replicate last year’s feat in terms of sweeping all the events, we got first place in two races and second place in the 1,000-meter event. We had two crews this year and this helped in terms of each crew pushing each other. This was a group effort and I’m very proud of all of our guys and how they performed last weekend,” coach Dino Manning said.

Joining Manning on the two MOC teams were Bobby Cruz, Vince Tudela, Billy Grow, Jose Quan, Ketson “Jack” Kabiriel, Richard Salas, James Lee, Jovano Taitano, Mel Manibusan, Maverick Itibus, and Jason Tarkong.

In the 500m title race, MOC 1 posted 2:32.5 to beat Guam’s AT Matgot Men (2:34.7), BKC Men (2:36.3), TTG Men (2:36.8), and MOC 2 (2:39.7). MOC 1 paddlers managed to reign supreme in the finale despite a fourth place finish in the preliminary. MOC 1 clocked in at 2:35.2 in the elimination, falling behind MOC 2 (2:35.0), Saipan Paddling Club (2:33.5), and AT Metgot Men (2:31.7). In the repechage, BKC Men and TTG Men’s took the Top 2 honors after submitting 2:32.1 and 2:33.2, respectively, to advance to the finals. SPC missed the title race as it was just ranked third (2:35.0) in the repechage.

In the long course event, which had a distance of 10 miles, MOC 2 bested 11 other teams. MOC 2 wrapped up the grueling race in 1:30:58, more than a minute ahead of BKC Men (1:32:06) and TTG Men (1:32:16). Other squads that finished the last event of the competition were SPC (1:32:45), AT Metgot (1:33:25), GT Men (1:35:05), Haggan LMS (1:35:42), MOC 1 (1:37:10), Ifit Men (1:40:33), Haggan LMS Masters (1:43:00), Tulos OPT 2 (1:43:29), and AT Adahi (1:44:08).

In the men’s 1,000m finals, MOC 1 timed in at 5:49.3, just a little over a second behind champion BKC, which logged 5:48.1. AT Metgot (5:52.4), Tulos OPT 2 (5:56.2), and SPC (5:57.7) were the other qualifiers in the finals. In the preliminary and repechage, MOC 1 registered 5:40.6 ( third) and 5:38.2 (first), respectively, while MOC 2’s times in the first two races were 5:49.2 and 5:53.6.