Ono, Furusawa have the power

Harumitsu Ono and Haruna Furusawa mastered the wind and waves in every heat on Sunday to win their respective men’s and women’s divisions of the 4th Annual Marianas Windsurfing Cup of the shores of Micro Beach.

Ono was without equal on the water as he was the first to circle the course in each of his five races to edge Shoichi Niikura for the top prize. Niikura took the tape in two of his five races in opposing heats and came in behind Ono in their only head-to-head match to take second place.

Not far behind was Masataka Hattori in third, as he added a second and third place finishes to his pair of first place races to end up behind Niikura by one point.

Ono has been riding the waves of Saipan for 10 years and said that his home field advantage as an employee of Windsurfing Saipan gives him an advantage in the competitions.

While he was happy to take the top spot in the tournament, Ono said that the Marianas Cup is more of a leisure event and that he plans to bring his best game next spring.

“We just started this one. The next one is the biggest one. We expect more people for the race in March. There will be better conditions and more volunteers. The Micronesian Open is the longest windsurfing race in the whole world so it’s a very big event. We will have more people come from Guam, Japan, and Hawaii. It’s a more international event,” he said.

After taking second place last year, Furusawa was Ono-like on the women’s side of the waves in 2005 as the Shizuoka, Japan native swept each of her four races to get past while second place finisher Aya Fujimoto—who was second in three of four races.

“I feel very happy,” said Furusawa.

Third place finisher Sachiko Shibazaki was unable to keep start in three of the matches, but she passed Fujimoto in the third race to come close to Furusawa.

When she return to Japan later on today, Furusawa will go back to her job as a professional bowling instructor, but she plans to return to Saipan next November for the 5th Annual Marianas Cup, and possibly next March for the 24th Annual Micronesian Open next March as well.

Since the wind conditions were less than ideal on Saturday, the organizers opted to host a fun race, and Furusawa took that one too—besting second place finisher Mitsuyoshi Iwami and Shoichi Niikura.

Race organizer Shigeru Tomita of Windsurfing Saipan said that he was pleased with the turnout for the event, but that he plans to make the Marianas Cup as successful as the Micronesian Open by continuing the tradition for another 20 years as well.

“Yeah, why not,” he said.

Tomita said that while the wind conditions were not up to par for the full slate of races on Saturday, the participants enjoyed the fun races and that Sunday’s weather more than made up for it.

“The wind was not too good, but they had a good time. They enjoyed it because everybody’s friendly and it’s not such a serious race,” he said.

If you are interested in sampling the sport of windsurfing, the crew from Windsurfing Saipan is open from 9am to 5pm everyday for lessons and rentals on the beach behind the Hyatt.