Coaches: Oceania athletes fared well

Some of CNMI’s masters athletes of the Oceania Athletics Masters Championships pose with Oceania Athletics president Robin Sapong, far left, and Run Saipan president and coach Edward Dela Cruz Jr., far right, before an awards ceremony during the event at the Oleai Sports Complex track and field.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The CNMI was represented well in athletics as it hosted the Oceania Cup and concurrent Oceania Athletics Masters Championships last June 22-25 at the Oleai Sports Complex.

Young up-and-coming athletes to the “has-beens” of athletics past put up quite a show for their home crowd as they ran, jumped, and threw against top athletes in the Oceania region—with CNMI athletics head coach Elias Rangamar saying the team fared well in the four-day tourney.

The overall CNMI team comprised 69 athletes and Rangamar said they fared well “considering those three regions were basically all-stars or the cream of the crop from each island nation with a bigger population, while we had to represent ourselves instead of representing a region. As for the masters, we dominated as we had the most number of participants.”

The speedy team Melanesia dominated the Cup and won first place, while team NMI came in last place out of five teams. 

As for the Masters Championships, the CNMI had the most athletes and almost swept the whole competition. Rangamar said on their performance, “We are forever grateful for the Australian masters athletes for inspiring our NMI masters athletes with their exuberance and wisdom in showing us that age is just a number. That we can still compete and live a healthy lifestyle by staying active.” 

He added, “I believe this just kicked off the interest of a lot of our NMI participants to remain active and set off the stage to create our own master’s program.”

For the turnout of the event, Rangamar said that it was as expected, but some athletes did not make it due to visa issues—but other than that, he thought that they did another fantastic job of hosting another major event in the CNMI. He said they have received great reviews again from the off-islands athletes and officials.

Rangamar then gave a huge kudos to the organizing committee, the Northern Marianas Athletics board, the Oceania family, officials, athletes, and coaches. “A special thank you to all our sponsors Coca Cola/Foremost, ITE, McDonald’s of Saipan, our hard working volunteers, Saipan Mayor’s Office, Tinian Mayor’s Office, Marianas Visitors Authority, Northern Marianas Sports Association, and Gov. Arnold I. Palacios for their contributions in making this event a success.”

Edward Dela Cruz Jr., who was also an athlete, official, and volunteer for the event, coached many of the athletes who joined.

He is the president of Run Saipan, the premier running club on Saipan, and many of its members represented and placed in either the Oceania Cup or the Masters Championships.

With that, he said that he is very proud of each of them. “They all did their best and had the time of their lives in the cup. They put months into training committing to their distances and I hope they were able to come away with great experiences for their next competition. They have truly earned their rest as well and should be congratulated by all for representing our island with pride and distinction.”

On his performance as an athlete, Dela Cruz, who won gold in the men’s 30 age group 5,000m, said “The race was fun and exciting, especially the 1,500m. It felt great to be out and running with people from different countries. It’s truly beautiful to compete with people who have the same passion for the sport.” 

Athletics coach and Saipan International School headmaster Dr. Ron Snyder, who was off-island during the tourney, said of Kaithlyn Chavez’s record-breaking time in the 800m that he’s been telling her she would break it ever since she came close in last year’s Pacific Mini Games.

“I am so proud of her that she set it this year at the Cup in her sophomore year and have great expectations for her in her junior and senior years. She continues the strong SIS tradition of top female runners that have included Isabel, Tania [Tan], Anika [Snyder], Tiana [Cabrera], and now Kaithlyn. Watch out for her this year in Cross Country!,” said Snyder.

Chavez is the new CNMI 800m record holder after she ran it with a time of 2:29.24 in the Oceania Cup.

The CNMI’s athletics team members were Aaron Pamintuan, Saim Ali, Lyle Andrew, Anthony Borja, Dennis Borja, Greg Borja, Tim Brasuell, Alexander Camacho, Lawrence Camacho, Kaithlyn Chavez, Rosemarie Chisato, Colleen Cing, Casey Cruz, Sly Defang, Cheraline Epity, Kelvin Fitial, Erin Frink, Jess Gariguez, Savannah Grant, Nick Gross, Tony Ichiuo, Maria Igitol, Sheila Isla, Jacoby Winkfield, Changhwan Jang, Daniel Joab, Paul Khang, Greg Koebel, Chong Nam Lee, James Lee, James Lin, Keith Longuski, Michael Mancao, Akiko Miller, Beouch Ngirchonger, Maria Ornes, Jessica Ortizo, Micah Page, Fema Pelaez, Orrin Pharmin, Pony Tang, Leith Poole, Kina Rangamar, Lia’Mwar Rangamar, Michael Rodgers, Theodore Rodgers, Kathy Ruscala, Matua San Nicholas, Angel San Nicolas, Zarinae Sapong, Chiharu Sato, Kosuke Sato, Elizabeth Sawyer, Mike Sawyer, Cody Shimizu, Sildrey Veloria, Simon Necesito, Simon Tang, Tania Tan, Tiana Cabrera, Kathleen Tolentino, Raymund Tolentino, Leo Wania, and Kathleen Winkfield.