13 complete XTERRA Saipan Sport

Ben Babauta enters the bike trail in Navy Hill during last Saturday’s 2014 XTERRA Saipan Championship.( ROSELYN B. MONROYO)

Thirteen survived the sport course in the 2014 XTERRA Saipan Championship with young triathlete Jerome Diyco leading the finishers in last Saturday’s race.

Diyco timed in at 2:07:35 in the 750-meter swim, 24K bike, and 5K run race and was one of the seven participants to complete the race in under three hours. The 15-year-old finished the one-lap swim race in the waters off Micro Beach in 15:59, behind only six other swimmers in the sport course, but was the fastest in the bike leg (1:26:39) to grab the lead. He then posted the second-best time in the run (21:47) to take the top spot in the sport division.

About 10 minutes behind Diyco was another Saipan bet, Russ Quinn, who won his age group (45 to 49) after submitting 2:17:31. Quinn was the second fastest in the swim leg with his 14:04, third best in the bike (1:36:36), and also the third fastest in the run with a split time of 23:33. He prevailed against Tinian’s Allen Perez (3:07:43) and Saipan’s Ricky Castro (3:10:07). Perez had split times of 18:35, 2:15:26, and 28:48, while Castro registered 18:24, 2:15:03, and 33:03.

Joining Quinn and Diyco in the Top 3 (overall) was Bob Ferrer, who clocked in at 2:21:11 after logging 15:29 in the swim, 1:31:45 in the bike, and 29:27 in the bike race.

Other XTERRA Sport participants who broke the three-hour barrier were Kanae Quinn (2:29:56), Ernie Moises (2:35:14), Jay Diyco (2:47:50), and Russia’s Andrei Ermolaev (2:49:50). Kanae was one of the only two female participants in the short course with Russia’s Natalia Khalazzi the other one and the former took the first place finish after leading by more than 50 minutes against the latter in the bike leg. Kanae had a bike split time of 1:46:16 to go with her 14:44 and 24:17 in the swim and run legs, respectively. Khalazzi had the fastest swim and run times—13:20 and 20:56—but still fell behind (3:21:55), as it took her more than two hours (2:42:54) to negotiate the tough bike course. She often opted to walk her bike on up and downhill roads and lost precious time in the second part of the race.

Moises clinched second place in the 40 to 44 age group with split times of 14:22, 1:50:30, and 26:09, making it to the finish line more than 12 minutes ahead of third placer Jay Diyco (19:58, 1:57:00, and 27:44).

Completing the list of XTERRA Sport finishers were Russia’s Dmitrii Shurakhtenkov and Saipan’s Leo Wania. Shurakhtenkov timed in at 3:13:25 with split times of 17:50, 2:26:49, and 25:33, while Wania recorded 3:21:41 (15:21, 2:20:11, and 39:41).

Meanwhile, the trio of Christian Villacrusis, Fred Remillosa, and Ricardo Antonio ruled the relay race after combining for 2:07:27. Villacrusis registered 12:21 in the one-lap swim race for the lead and the group widened the gap further with Remillosa submitting 1:28:09 in the bike race. Ricardo finished the race with his 27:26 in the run leg.

The trio defeated the father-and-son team of Ben and Benjamin Babauta (2:35:53) and the team of Vincent Seman, Jay Santos, and Catherine Cachero (2:51:09). Benjamin did the swim leg and timed in at 15:42, while Ben had the last two legs and tallied 1:52:23 and 25:58. Seman was the swimmer on his group and posted 14:19, while Santos took over in the bike leg and clocked in at 2:02:36. For the finish, Cachero registered 33:46.