Tamio Club leads relay finishers

Tamil Club snuck from behind to finish first overall in the relay event of last Saturday’s 30th Tagaman Triathlon.

Kosuke Sato anchored Tamio Club to victory after passing several runners on his way back to the finish line at Kilili Beach and completing the 15-kilometer course in 1:08:15—the fastest in their division and more than 11 minutes ahead of the finisher (Kaden Church) of runner-up Team JPK.

Sato teamed up with swimmer Tamio Nishikido and biker Kimiko McKagan. Nishido timed in at 34:28 in the two-kilometer swim in the waters off Kilili Beach for 10th place overall in the relay division. McKagan was up next for Tamio Club and wrapped up the 60K-bike race that brought riders to as far as Banzai Cliff up north at the Airport Road down south and back to Kilili Beach in 2:03:26. She placed at the top half of the 20 bikers entered in the relay and when she made it to the bike-run transition area, at least five runners in the team event had already made their way out to the course to head to the Gov. Eloy S. Inos Peace Park via Beach Road.

Sato, who had repeated warm-up runs while waiting for his turn to race, finally headed out to the course a few minutes after eventual champion Yu Shinozaki crossed the finish line. Then more than an hour later, Sato came, smiling, and raising both his arms in triumph.

Sato, McKagan, and Nishikido had a combined time of 3:46:19, nearly three minutes ahead of Team JPK (3:49:10). Jinju Thompson did the swim leg for the runner-up team in the mixed relay division and clocked in at 25:26—the third fastest in the relay field behind 11-year-old Isaiah Aleksenko (22:30) and TRAC 1’s Farah Master (24:44). Philip Gauang was Team JPK’s biker and submitted 2:04:08, while Church wrapped it up for the squad after posting 1:19:36.

Team Sakura (3:59:39) of swimmer Shuji Kurada (38:14), biker Andrew Estepa (2:06:05) and runner Sakiko Eda (1:15:20) rounded out the Top 3 in the mixed relay division.

In the men’s relay, Aleksenko gave MV Team, which also had biker Renato Barros and runner Vhoie Francia as members, a strong start as the former was third overall out of the water (behind two male pros). The Tsunami Saipan swimmer handed MV Team a more than 13-minute lead over eventual top finisher Team Ang Pogi before settling for third place, after Barros and Francia clocked in at 2:12:31 and 1:36:17, respectively.

Team Ang Pogi, which had swimmer Clark Boswell (35:40), biker Raymund Tolentino (2:02:06), and runner Alex Hammet (1:28:11), registered 4:05:57 to rule their division. Mark Chavez (31:09), Butch Sublemente (2:00:49), and Enrique Evangelista (1:35:17) of TAGAI-MAN 2 completed the Top 3 after recording 4:07:15.

In the women’s relay, Fuetsan Famalao’an of swimmer Pilar Shimizu (27:14) and biker/runner Jenn Camacho (2:07:59/1:38:26) came out on top after registering 4:13:19. Just The TRI of Us (Jessica Dayrit, Cheryl Sung and Anasa Lisa Salazar) and It’s Not Going To Be Pretty (Janet King and Stephanie Boutsicaris) made it to the podium, too after clocking in at 4:36:32 and 5:15:07, respectively.

Meanwhile other finishers in the relay race were APHI Team (Patholo Joab, Wilfredo Barbo, and Elena Gersonde/4:06:04); Father and Son (Yu Hun, Hee Chan, and Hee Mang Park /4:25:08); An Anchor, Two Flat Tires, and A Rocket (Anthony Raho/Jhoel Phair, and Kaylee Heath/4:25:33); Gangbuk Junior (Yongbin Yun, Insang Lee, Byungon Lee/4:30:13); Reindeers (Sarah Vander Wal, Romel Riosejo, and Joel Freeman.4:30:24); Team Hyatt (Gino Libuw, Bobby Vargas, and Dionny Peralta/4:31:15); Kraken (Chenxuan Yang, Teng Zhang, and Zehua Chen/4:36:58); TAGAI-MAN 1 (Kaithlynn Chavez, James Abuy, and Romel Bartolo/4:43:49); Agape Sword (Arthur Liang, Caleb Dai, and Simon Shan/4:51:49); TRAC 1 (Master, Ruben Chappins, and Aris Oris/5:09:52); and Kanoa (Tamery William, Roy Jagadish, and Amalia Hernandez/5:10:36).