Mr. Multisport

He may not have realized a week ago when he was voted into the presidency of the Northern Marianas Islands Triathlon Federation, but Dirk Sharer has lost his relatively low profile as Saipan’s top triathlete.

The business consultant at the Business Development Center at Northern Marianas College has been a member of the Saipan Masters Swimming group for some time.

While he admits that he never swam well when he came to Saipan in 1997, Sharer said that he has been competing in triathlons off and on since the early 1990s after a lengthy love for running marathons took a toll on his joints.

If Sharer were to list all of his races, it would probably take up the majority of the Saipan Tribune’s Sport section; a few of the events he mentioned as his most important included qualifying and running his first Boston Marathon, and learning how to swim from Bill and Jean Sakovich—and getting speedier under present SSC coach Michael Stewart.

“What patience they’ve all demonstrated and it’s still a work in progress,” he said.

Sharer also listed winning team bronze for triathlon in Fiji 2003 with Stephan Samoyloff and Anneka Sakovich, and running a Boston Marathon qualifying time in Hong Kong last year at age 44—after 10 years away from marathon participation.

The most important to Sharer was a little closer to home, when his brother Eric survived his battle with cancer and raced alongside him in last April’s Tagaman triathlon.

Since arriving on Saipan nearly eight years ago, Sharer has seen the dramatic growth and participation of multisport events, and said that his first order of business as the NMITF head is to work with his fellow board members and the community to provide quality events to the members and newcomers interested in the taking up the sport.

With his eye on varying the traditional events a bit to draw out new racers, Sharer said that he plans to keep making the events fun for participants of all ages.

While he hasn’t had enough time to plan on making any changes to the NMITF, Sharer said that he would like to see continued growth and recognition of the local multisport scene for the physical and financial health of the CNMI during his presidency.

He noted the potential economic value that triathlons bring to the CNMI, and said that he hopes that “newcomers to the group, create a healthier lifestyle for themselves, and pass it along to others.”

Saipan’s reigning master of the sport of three offered some advice to the next generation of triathletes who will eventually take his place.

“Participate; this isn’t work, its fun!”

While he is still getting used to the position, Sharer said that he had a couple of long-term goals for the NMITF that have the Commonwealth’s best interests at heart.

“I’d also like to see CNMI in the Olympic family one day and get the NMITF into the International Triathlon Union membership. I’d also like to have solid coaching for newcomers as I have not had any formal training in this sport. …I learned it on my own throughout the years.”