Triumphant Tagaman return

Japanese pro Yu Shinozaki kept his promise, as he returned for the 30th Tagaman Triathlon and ruled last Saturday’s race.

Shinozaki completed the two-kilometer swim, 60K bike, and 15K run with a blistering time of 2:48:39 to lead more than 100 finishers and clinch the men’s pro championship, which he missed last year after a bike crash.

“I made a promise to come back after I did not finish the race last year because I had a crash,” said Shinozaki.

A car hit a police motorcycle then Shinozaki while he was breezing past the intersection in Beach Road and Chalan Hagoi near the Mt. Carmel Cathedral in Chalan Kanoa. The Japanese pro was ahead of last year’s race, but had to pull out, as he was brought to the hospital to treat the cuts, bruises, and contusion on his right knee. He managed to attend the awards ceremony of the 2018 competition, but was in a wheelchair and later had to go through a series of tests in Japan to determine the extent of the damage the accident caused to him.

“I recovered very well, as I did some rehab. Today, I had a very good race. I rode the bike faster, but safer. The water was nice, I had no problems with my bike and the road, and for the run, there’s a bit of cloud, so it was not that hot,” said Shinozaki, who was the lone finisher to cap the race under the three-hour mark, as runner-up Hiroyuki Nishiuchi of Japan and Aleksandr Dorovskikh of Russia timed in at 3:04:05 and 3:04:15, respectively.

Nishiuchi was first out of the water, completing the two-lap course at Kilili Beach at 22:15, a just a little over a minute ahead of Shinozaki. However, by the time Shinozaki passed through Kilili Beach from the Airport Road on his way to the northern portion of the course (up to Banzai Cliff), he was already ahead and went on to finish the bike leg in 1:28:34—the fastest in the field.

The Ironman veteran also had the best time in the run leg—which was from Kilili Beach to the bottom part of the Gov. Eloy S. Inos Peace Park and back—after clocking in at 55:17. Shinozaki was the only triathlete to break the one-hour mark in the last leg of the race and was the division’s runaway winner, as he even had several opportunities to pose for a photo at the finish line with the next finisher checking in more than 15 minutes later.

“I was really motivated to come back after the crash last year and win this great race,” the 25-year-old said.

Meanwhile, six other pros joined the men’s field with the Philippines’ Fernando Jose Casares (3:06:34), South Korea’s Kaon Cho (3:22:06) and Soo Hwan Chun (3:24:13), the Netherland’s Van Der Flier Vasco (3:25:25), and South Korea’s Jihyuk Yang (3:37:37) and Jin Gu Ha (3:42:24) rounding out the list.

Redemption for Iijima
In the women’s division, Guam’s Manami Iijima topped her event anew to complete a three-peat.

She finished the race in 3:12:12 with split times of 23:19 (swim), 1:41:06 (bike), and 1:04:47 (run) to beat fellow Guam triathlete Laura Nadeau (3:13:18) and the Philippines’ Maria Hodges (3:26:13).

Though she dominated last Saturday’s race, the Guam pride called Tagaman her

“redemption race.”

“I raced in Ironman 70.3 Davao in the Philippines last week and had a tough race. I was throwing up in the bike leg and had mechanical issues, too. Then just into the 1K of the run leg (21.1K), I passed out and had to be brought to the ambulance,” Iijima said.

Iijima, who was among the favorites in the PH tournament, managed to complete the race, but dropped to sixth place.

“When I returned to Guam, I knew I had to recover fast to get ready for Tagaman. I had to come here and redeem myself for the not so good race I had in the Philippines,” she said.

In Tagaman, Iijima got off to a strong start, as she was six minutes ahead of Nadeau (29:39) after the swim leg and was more than four minutes faster than Hodges (27:24). The gap in the swim leg allowed Iijima to offset Nadeau’s lead in the bike portion, as the latter timed in at 1:38:39 or a little over two minutes faster than the former. Hodges submitted 1:45:44. Nadeau also had a better time in the run leg at 1:05:00, more than two minutes ahead of Iijima, who still reached the finish line first in the division after getting enough cushion in the swim leg. The Guam was a former member of a swim club on the island before switching to triathlon.