Mieko, Butch to race vs elites in XTERRA World

 The CNMI’s Mieko Carey and Butch Sublemente will be up against the cream of the crop in this weekend’s 2001 XTERRA World Championship in Hawaii.

The elite field includes no less than seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who officially announced his entry to the Oct. 23 (Oct. 24 on Saipan) event in a social network yesterday, saying he is bound to Kona and looking forward to racing. Armstrong switched to triathlon after retiring from cycling, placing first in the Four Peaks Urban Dirt Triathlon in Arizona and fourth in the XTERRA USA Championships in Utah this year.

Carey, Sublemente, and Armstrong will be among the 675 triathletes who will compete in XTERRA World with the former entered in the pro division and the two others in the age group categories.

Seventy-five pros are doing the race, including four-time men’s champion Conrad Stoltz of South Africa and 2010 women’s champion and 2011 XTERRA Saipan Championship winner Shonny Vanlandingham, who ended Julie Diben’s three-year reign last season.

Carey also raced last season and finished at No. 13 among the more than 20 women’s pros, moving five notches higher from her 18th place in 2009. Sublemente will be debuting in XTERRA World, as he competes in the men’s 35 to 39 age group.

Sublemente had his last pre-XTERRA World preparation last Sunday when he joined a 50-kilometer race from the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio to the northern portion of the island and back to PIC. He finished second behind Lewie Tenorio.

Carey was also scheduled to join the 50K race, but withdrew the last minute due to a minor injury. The Saipan triathlete hurt her right knee, but said the pain is manageable and she is all set for the XTERRA World. The 32-year-old Carey is slated to leave Saipan for Hawaii today, while Sublemente had already left early yesterday morning.

The two Saipan triathletes will be racing in a new course in XTERRA World. From the south’s Makena Beach & Golf Resort, the race will now take place in the north’s Kapalua Resort with participants competing in the 1.5-km swim at the 3 to 5-foot waves of D.T. Fleming Beach, the 30-km bike trails and slopes of West Maui Mountains, and 10-km run to the dusty lava-strewn path up Haleakal and wild rainforests.

Meanwhile, Tagaman. Inc. president Wolf Mojica will also attend the XTERRA World to invite triathletes for the 2012 XTERRA Saipan Championship.