NMI Athletics ‘ready to rise up to the challenge’

Some members of the CNMI National Athletics Team for the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 pose a group photo at the Oleai track & field.(CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Members of the CNMI National Athletics Team will have their work cut out for them with the region’s titans of track and field competing in the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022.

Don’t tell that to national coach Dr. Ron Snyder though, as despite Pacific Games powerhouses Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and New Caledonia’s looming presence in the Games, he  believes Team NMI can salvage a medal or two in the 11th staging of the quadrennial event.

“I think the team will do well. They have been training hard and have grown tremendously. We are a young team and our training has been greatly hampered with the loss of the track but we are ready to rise up to the challenge. I am hoping for some medals and many personal bests,” he told Saipan Tribune.

It can be recalled that the Oleai track & field underwent resurfacing for a couple of months leaving the athletics team to look for alternative venues to train.

This has resulted in Snyder’s team having no sort of home-court advantage when the athletics events unfurl on Tuesday, June 21.

“I don’t think there is much of a home soil advantage since we have not been able to train on our track. So, we are learning its quirks at the same time as the other teams. But I am hoping for some amazing NMI cheering from our community members and that will assuredly help.”

Named to the 23-person CNMI National Athletics Team are Rex Pixley (5,000m, 1,500m), Denise Myers (steeplechase, 5,000m), Casey Cruz (100m, 200m, 400m), Sildrey Veloria (5,000m, 1,500m, steeplechase), Lyle Andrew (discus), Michael Rodgers (100m, 200m, 400m), Zarinae Sapong (100m, 200m), Theodore Rodgers (100m, 200m, 400m), Charles McDonald (200m), Tiana Cabrera (5,000, 1,500m), Liamwar Rangamar (javelin), Michael Mancao (800m, 1,500m, steeplechase), Orrin Pharmin (octathlon), Tania Tan (5,000m, 10K, and half marathon), Alexander Camacho (long jump, 100m), Richard Ogumoro (shotput), Zyrus Bata (800m, steeplechase), Kina Rangamar (400m), Kaitlyn Chavez (800m, steeplechase), Cheraline Epity (shotput, discus, javelin), Mark Mapeso (shotput, discus), Anthony Borja (shotput, discus), and Denis Borja (shotput, discus).

Athletics will have 18 countries participating, namely American Samoa with two athletes, Australia with 14, Cook Islands with one, FSM with four, Fiji with 61, Guam with 13, Kiribati with 13, Nauru with 12, New Caledonia with 44, Northern Marianas with 23, Palau with six, PNG with 47, Samoa with 10, Solomon Islands with 41, Tahiti with 20, Tonga with five, Tuvalu with three, and Vanuatu with eight. It will be held at the Oleai track & field from June 21 to 25.

PNG dominated the athletics events in the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa, bagging 51 medals (14 gold, 20 silver, and 17 bronze). Fiji and New Caledona finished 1-2 in the medal standings in the sport with 20 (10 gold, 7 silver, 3 bronze) and 19 (9 gold, 7 silver, 3 bronze) medals, respectively.