XTERRA a great fit for Saipan

The list of prominent professionals and ardent amateurs continues to grow as the points from Micro Beach to Mount Tapochau ready for the fearless tribes of off-road triathletes from all over the globe assemble in the Commonwealth for the XTERRA Saipan Championship.

There are just a couple of weeks before the canon’s retort sends scores of multi-sport enthusiasts running into the water to start the race, and this year’s field will be filled with all of the race’s past champions.

Two-time defending XTERRA Saipan champion Olivier Marceau, 2003 XTERRA Saipan champion Jason Chalker, last year’s XTERRA Saipan runner-up Hideo Fukui, Yu Yumoto, and 2005 Rota Blue Half-Ironman champion Taro Shirato mark the list of returning men’s pros, while Kyosuke Takei, Ryan DeCook, and Ben Buchholz are confirmed for their first professional races on Saturday, April 1.

On the women’s side, three-time XTERRA Saipan champion Jamie Whitmore and XTERRA Saipan defending champ Renata Bucher will be joined by the Japanese trio of Yasuko Miyazaki, Mami Saito, and Yuko Sasaki on the beach.

The proof of the XTERRA Saipan Championship’s success is in the numbers. The race has gotten bigger every year since its inception in 2001 and has more than tripled in its size in that time as well. Last year there were more than 50 triathletes from Japan alone, another 40 from Guam, and 30 from the U.S. mainland and beyond.

If you include the NMI locals that took part in the event, the total goes to 150 XTERRA racers in the main event, the half-distance XTERRA Sport course, and the relays, another 85 runners who took part in the Scrambles, and some 50 kids who rode their bikes in the race.

The 5km and 10km XTERRA Scrambles have been a hit with the community and have raised funds for some of Saipan’s non-profit organizations including the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation and the Saipan Swim Club. This year the folks at Hawaii-based Team Unlimited are working with the Northern Mariana Islands Football (Soccer) Association to put on a “Soccer Scramble” that will benefit the fledgling organization.

While the details have not yet been released, the event takes place at 5pm on Friday, March 31, at American Memorial Park and gets underway with the same canon-fire start used in the XTERRA Saipan Championship.

While the adults will be pushing their bodies to the limits in Saipan’s rugged interior the following day, the kids will enjoy the two-wheeled fun on Saturday, April 1, at 9am during the XTERRA Kids Bike Race. Everyone will be a winner, as all of the participants will receive awards.

In addition to the extreme athletes who shelled out the dough to get to Saipan for the race, a number of support staff and media personnel made the overseas trip to the CNMI. According to Team Unlimited’s Trey Garman, the race company brought over 30 employees to get XTERRA up and running, and a dozen members of the foreign press shot film and took snapshots of the event as well.

“This thing has gotten bigger and bigger every year, we’re very proud of it, super excited to continue doing it, we love being in Saipan and part of the family, and we’ll do everything we can to perpetuate the Crown Jewel,” said Garman.

After filming the race last April, Gaora TV in Japan, which reaches into more than three million households nationwide from Hokkaido to Okinawa, aired the XTERRA Saipan Championship show five times in June and July.

Team Unlimited’s office in Japan also works year-round producing Saipan brochures and posters for distribution in the CNMI’s largest tourist pool. Additionally, XTERRA Camps and Clinics are held in Japan to train the Japanese hopefuls for the XTERRA Saipan race, and their employees coordinate the XTERRA Saipan website for Japanese as well as answer the phone calls about the race.

The local race has also been featured in Outdoor Japan, Action Asia, and Triathlon Japan with full-page color ads promoting Saipan’s beauty, as well as a number of posters, brochures, dedicated web pages, and year-round promotion on the XTERRA Global Tour showcasing Saipan as a premier adventure destination.

The traveling media coverage is bolstered by Team Unlimited’s marketing power throughout the region as all together there were 56 airings, 112 Marianas Visitors Authority ads, 112 MVA billboards, 6.2 million viewers, and 17.4 million Saipan impressions in Japan alone.

The exposure in the U.S. Market, offered the XTERRA Saipan Championship 106 airings, which includes another 106 MVA ads, 106 MVA billboards, and 3 million MVA impressions.

According to Garman, the total for exposure for the U.S. and Japan works out to 218 MVA ads, 218 MVA billboards, and 20.4 million MVA impressions.