Run Saipan Alpha breaks record

The Run Saipan Alpha team, from left, Tania Tan, Heimanarii Lai San, Sildrey Veloria, Keith Longuski, and Keith Ketola scorched the competition with a record-breaking time of 1:19.52 in the Northern Marianas Athletics’ 41st Annual Christmas Island Relay last Saturday.(LAO ZHANG)

Run Saipan’s Alpha team took home an early Christmas gift after setting an unofficial new record in the Northern Marianas Athletics’ 41st Annual Christmas Island Relay last Saturday.

Tania Tan, Keith Ketola, Heimanarii Lai San, Keith Longuski, and Sildrey Veloria took turns running 1-mile increments from Pacific Islands Club to the Last Command Post in Marpi and finished the 13.7-mile course in a break-neck speed of 1:19.52.

The Run Saipan Alpha team poses with Run Saipan secretary/treasurer Dr. Ron Snyder, extreme left, Lia Rangamar, Run Saipan’s Edward Dela Cruz Jr., second from right, and Northern Marianas Athletics developmental officer Elias Rangamar, extreme right, after Northern Marianas Athletics’ 41st Annual Christmas Island Relay last Saturday.(LAO ZHANG)

Run Saipan president Edward Dela Cruz Jr. said the 2022 Alpha team is a combination of the club’s 2021 Alpha and Bravo teams and was on a mission for redemption after the premier running club on the island didn’t top the open division race last year.  

The team’s average split times per mile was 5:46/mile or 3:34/km. Individually, Veloria ran a 5:59/mile; Ketola sprinted a 4:55/mile; Tan ran a 5:45/mile; Longuski ran a 5:30/mile; and Lai San ran a 6:30/mile.

A close second was the Agape Torchbearers 1 with a time of 1:21.34 and third was Agape Torchbearers 2 that clocked in at 1:28.14.

Allen Lou, Jireh Wang, Caleb Cui, Daniel Li, and David Zhao made up the Torchbearers 1 team, while Abraham Zhu, Stephen Chen, Jim Qui, Aaron Wang, Eunice Xu made up the Torchbearers 2 team.

Tania Tan, who was the team captain and Run Saipan board member, said that the course “was really fun. The roads were kind of slippery today because I think it probably rained earlier in the morning or overnight, but I love this race because there’s just so many people and it’s so close to Christmas, so everyone’s back, and it was just a really fun race overall.”

Tan, who just arrived on island a couple days before the race said, “I’m still kind of jet-lagged, but I wanted to run this and Edward Dela Cruz asked me, so I said ‘sure, why not? It’d be fun.’” She said that she will be on Saipan until early January and would gladly join other races while she’s here.

When asked if they were leading the whole way, Tan, who ran the second leg of the 13.7-mile long course, said that they were. “Surprisingly, we did lead the whole time, which I was surprised about because I thought Agape [Christian School] would have come closer. But yeah, it was nice to just be leading.”

Dela Cruz said the turnout was “amazing” and that “multiple records were broken.” 

“We broke the most teams ever recorded and capped it officially with 33 teams. That is a record [of] 165 runners. Another record broken was our running club’s fastest time, which now belongs to Run Saipan Alpha led by Tania Tan. They ran it in under an hour and 20 minutes. Records are meant to be broken. ACS Torchbearers team broke the record too by running just a minute shy from ours. So proud of both teams’ accomplishments. That means the standards are higher for next year for those vying for competition.”

“It was an honor to co-direct the race alongside the legendary coach Elias Rangamar. We did our best under the guidance of Robin [Sapong] to ensure we had a safe and great race. All the teams did such an amazing job bringing their most festive holiday spirit as well as cheering everyone on and having fun. That was the priority. An amazing job to the officers of the Department of Public Safety for executing a flawless highway plan. If it were not for them, we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off. Thank you to our NMA and Run Saipan volunteers and officers for an amazing job conducting the 41st ACIR. Special thanks to the U.S. Army for leading the way carrying the colors as well as Lao Zhang, Ando Agulto, and Jonathan Sugatan for documenting and telling our story through their craft of photography and videography,” said Dela Cruz.

Results of the youth division will be posted in the next issues of Saipan Tribune.

Last year, Baby Got Track, led by Dr. Lily Muldoon, beat all three Run Saipan teams in the 40th staging of the Christmas Island Relay.