SOCC is tops in Christmas in Marianas

Local teams went head-to-head with teams from all over the region and came out ahead in this weekend’s 3rd Annual Christmas in the Marianas Outrigger Canoe, as no squad of synchronized paddlers was able to surpass the Saipan Outrigger Canoe Club.

The SOCC dominated both the men’s and women’s divisions to take the top spots in both, but the men faced their fiercest competition in the 500-meter sprint race, when they bested the Hong Kong Outrigger Club (2:30.16) by a distance of roughly three meters. Ohana Guam rounded out the top three with a time of 2:45.91.

The SOCC men rallied back in the 1,500m race to beat the HKOC by over 18 seconds, as Steve Nguyen, Gil Birnbrich, Jay Worrall, Eric O’Malley, Robert Jordan, and Yogesh Singh crossed the flags in 7:49.50. Ohana Guam took the third spot again with a time of 8:10.03.

With a day’s worth of sprints already in the bag, the SOCC team returned on Sunday for the 9-mile distance race. The steely six finished a good four minutes ahead of the HKOC (1:10:06) when they crossed the flags in front of Kilili Beach after one hour and six minutes.

This time out, the Guam squad was edged from the third spot by a mismatched team from Saipan, as the Canoe Federation picked up six paddlers that were in the beach area at the time of the race, and finished with a time of 1:13:24.

On the women’s side, the SOCC had it made as they fielded both of the teams in the competition. SOCC 1, dubbed Santa’s Helpers, swept the event from their teammates in the SOCC 2 boat. The Helpers (3:06.74) crossed the flags five seconds ahead of SOCC 2 (3:11.84) in the 500m, 21 seconds ahead in the 1,500m (9:04/9:25), and six minutes in the endurance challenging 9-mile (1:20:20/1:26:21) on the final day.

The Marianas Visitors Authority and the NMI Kanu Federation Racing Committee joined forces to bring back the sprint and distance races. The lure of the local favorite also attracted men’s teams from Ohana Hoe Japan and Haggan Guam.

The overseas women’s teams weren’t able to make the journey, but Keesha Sablan and Lori Ann “Bam” Sablan flew out from Guam and recruited Laura Burley, Jessica Jordan, and Kagman High School Canoe Coaches Rosalyn Ajoste and Sharlene Sakisat to be a part of their impromptu team.