Previous Story
Garman says Sportsfest best ever
|
Posted on Apr 14 2006
Positive reports about the XTERRA Saipan Championship and the 17th Tagaman Triathlon have been pouring in from all over the globe, and while the main events of the Saipan Sportsfest have been the focus of the compliments, racers have been raving about the events that linked the grueling races together.
Members of the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation set up a number of activities to keep the visiting triathletes on their toes during the seven-day stretch between the off-road challenge and the will-testing Tagaman, and Team Unlimited’s marketing director Trey Garman said that Saipan brought its A-game in 2006.
“The Sportsfest has never been stronger. It was evident in the Forbidden Island walk that we did on Monday. We had athletes from nine countries for a true international melting pot. We got to know each other really well, everybody learned things at the clinics, the fun things like the Go-Karts and the hikes were just a total bonus. It was awesome,” he said.
Despite boasting the highest numbers of participation in the event’s five-year history, posting continued annual increases, and being termed by many decision makers as “one of the most successful events in the CNMI,” the race is one of the items that the Marianas Visitors Authority is considering deleting from its roster of events in 2007.
With that in mind, Garman said that he remains hopeful that the MVA will make the right choice by sticking with the program that has delivered the CNMI all of its investment back during the event as well as a total value of more than $2 million and more than 54 million CNMI impressions.
“Our hearts are on Saipan—not just me but our entire crew. The people who race with us, the people that come to Saipan from every country always want to come back. As you’ve seen over the past few years they have come back, and they’ve come back with their friends and their families and people from other countries—and then they come back too. It’s something that has built upon itself like a snowball rolling down a hill and it’s only going to grow bigger,” he said.
