Newcomer rules XTERRA Saipan

Australia’s Brodie Gardner celebrates his XTERRA Saipan Championship victory last Saturday at the American Memorial Park grounds. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Australian pro Brodie Gardner beat the odds to win his debut in the 2016 XTERRA Saipan Championship.

Gardner completed last Saturday’s off-road triathlon race in 2:52:46 to defeat Japan’s Takahiro Ogasawara (2:54:14), the Philippines’ Joseph Miller (3:05:03), and South Korea’s Kaon Cho (3:21:08) for the men’s division crown.

Gardner’s victory came less than six hours after he touched down on Saipan for the first time, slept for about 30 minutes before preparing for the race, and headed to the course he had no idea where it would take him.

“I came here early Saturday morning between 1:30am and 2am after missing my original flight Friday morning. Honestly, two days ago, I wasn’t sure if I will come here on not,” the Sunshine Coast, Queensland resident said.

Gardner arrived on Saipan just several hours before the weekend’s race started after having trouble with his travel documents. The Australian immigration initially did not allow him to leave the Land Down Under as one day had already lapsed from the allowed six months validity of his passport. Fortunately, some people helped him fix the problem for just hours instead of weeks, but still he missed his originally flight so he ended up reaching Saipan early Saturday morning.

“I am thankful that Nicky Nichols picked me up in the wee hours of morning and gave me a place to stay. I slept for about 30 minutes and then got ready for the race in a course I had never seen before,” said Gardner, who got some info about the course from Nichols on their way to the Saipan resident’s home.

The race began with a 1.5-kilometer swim leg in the shallow waters off Micro Beach and Gardner showed little or no signs at all of fatigue from his nearly 24 hours of travel time and lack of sleep. He was way ahead of the pack by the time he got out of the water and ran along the shore for the second and final lap of the swim leg.

“The water was so shallow that I had to do a lot of walking and dolphin dives,” said Gardner, who completed the swim with the field’s fastest time of 15:21. “Since I haven’t seen the course, my plan was really to get a good lead in the swim leg so that once I started the bike and got lost on my way, I have time to spare.”

The newcomer was about two minutes ahead of Ogasawara, an XTERRA Saipan veteran and timed in at 17:10 in the bike leg, and Miller (17:03). Cho clocked in at 17:21.

Gardner needed the slim lead against Ogasawara as they were neck-and-neck in the 30K bike trail. The Australian pro posted 1:33:40 in the bike race, 13 seconds slower than his Japanese foe. Miller and Cho finished the bike trail in 1:41:19 and 1:50:47, respectively.

“My strategy in the bike leg was to shadow him (Ogasawara) if I lost the lead since I did not know the course. There were times he had overtaken me, but as long as I could still see him from a distance, I knew I had a chance,” said Gardner, who reached the bike-run transition area about a minute ahead of Ogasawara.

In the 12K trail run, Gardner was still threatened by Ogasawara, who even posted a faster time than the former, 1:03:37 to 1:03:45.

“I lost my way a couple of times along the run trail, especially in the cave area. It was dark and I could not find my way out. The run course was very technical and I lost some time, but fortunately I had a good lead in the swim,” said Gardner.

With his close win, Gardner earned his first victory in the XTERRA Asian Tour. He finished third behind XTERRA Saipan veterans Bradley Weiss and Ben Allen in last month’s XTERRA Philippines.

“I am glad I came here and won my first XTERRA Saipan,” Gardner said.