Sublemente draws first blood in Enticer

XTERRA World participant Butch Sublemente warmed up for the 2012 XTERRA Saipan Championship with a win in last Saturday’s Enticer 1.

Sublemente finished on top of the first of a series of races that aimed at preparing local bets for the two big triathlon events in March, timing in at 49 minutes and seven seconds. He completed the swim leg (with a distance of between 500m and 600m) in the waters of PauPau Beach in about 10 minutes, timed in at about 25 minutes in the trail bike race that brought riders to Marianas Country Club up to the one million gallon tank, FEBC road, and back to Paupau, and about 15 minutes in the run part. The run leg took runners up to the one million gallon tank and back to Paupau.

“The current was a bit strong and when we made our turn, we were pushed away from the course,” Sublemente said. “For the bike leg, it was a bit slippery as in rained last Friday night and early Saturday morning, so we really had to slow down especially at the FEBC road.”

The swim leg was done side ways with the 15 participants heading to their right toward the concrete boat dock near the shore of Palms Resort. A few waves and cold water greeted swimmers at the start of the race at Paupau. Tsunami Saipan swimmer Kaisei Toda was first out of the water, finishing the first leg of the race in about eight minutes. He ended up placing third with a combined time of 59 minutes, about four minutes behind runner-up Ronald Villafria (55:19).

Sublemente, Villafria, and Toda (Top 3 overall and off-road division) were the only three participants to complete Enticer 1 in under one-hour mark.

For the road course, Florence Antonio was the first finisher and fourth overall, clocking in at 1:04:07. The road course had the same route for the swim leg, while the bike race started from Paupau to Banzai and back, and the run part brought participants to the FEBC sign and back to Paupau.

Joshua Berger came in at second with a time of 1:04:50, while James Abuy completed the Top 3, submitting 1:12:10.

Rachel Zuercher (1:05:32) was the first female to cross the finish line and could have reached PauPau earlier if she did not stop to check if Brad Ruszala was okay after a crash at FEBC. Joining her on the finishers list were Ben Babauta (1:10:41), Derek Chambers (1:12:32), Ruszala (1:14:30), Logan Mister (1:20:08), Angie Mister (1:27:55), and Miku (1:40:02) and Robert Torres (1:40:04).

After the race, Taga, Inc. president Wolf Mojica later raffled off Tagaman and XTERRA entries. Antonio won a free XTERRA entry, while Logan Mister took the Tagaman ticket. More pre-XTERRA/Tagaman races will be held in the next two months and athletes are encouraged to join, as more entries to the March competitions will be raffled off.