Valencia is new TRAC secretary general

Jojo Valencia, standing right, has been elected as the new secretary general of the Triathlon Association of the CNMI . (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

The Triathlon Association of the CNMI has a new secretary general after Jojo Valencia was voted to replace Ricky Castro who bid the islands adieu last November for a new life in the U.S. mainland. 

Valencia was voted secretary general during the TRAC election last December where Manny Sitchon was also reelected president along with board members Florence Antonio, Jay Diyco, and Ambet Omampo. 

The board also welcomed its newest member with Yulia Aleksenko now part of the TRAC leadership. 

Valencia said initially he didn’t want to accept the nomination to replace Castro as secretary general because of his busy schedule. However, he relented when TRAC officers and members egged him on to fill in the big shoes left by Castro.

“It’s a big responsibility being the secretary general but I’ll do everything in my power to continue the good work Ricky Castro did for TRAC. We will be busy again this year as we will not only be organizing our regular races, but also will start preparing for the Pacific Games in the Solomon Islands in November.” 

Aleksenko, for her part, welcomed her election to the TRAC board and like Valencia said she will try her best to not let them down.

“If the board chooses me then they believe that I can be helpful. From my childhood sport that has been a part of my life and my family, I will be glad to help develop and organize triathlon events,” she said.

Sitchon, meanwhile, congratulated Valencia for his new position and welcomed Aleksenko to the board. He also thanked the rest of the reelected board for once again answering the call to serve the triathlon group. 

“Jojo indeed has big shoes to fill as Ricky was really aggressive with promoting TRAC’s activities. But to TRAC’s credit, our activities for the year have already been mapped out as we needed to submit our set of scheduled activities to Oceania Triathlon as requirements.”

As for Aleksenko, Sitchon said she was already helping TRAC even as a regular member so she will become more valuable now that she’s part of the board of directors.

He added that having a woman on the board was also suggested by Oceania Triathlon to break the gender barrier in the sport.

As for Antonio, Diyco, and Omampo, the TRAC head said everyone is happy and satisfied with the performance of the old set of officers that’s why they were reelected. 

“At least we already know how everyone works. It’s like a basketball team. The longer you stay together the more familiar with each other you become and just a wink of an eye you already know what’s the play,” he said.

TRAC was instrumental in helping stage the triathlon events of last year’s Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022 on Rota where the team of Aleksenko’s son, Isaiah; Leo Wania; Kathy Ruszala; and Heather Brook took the bronze medal in the run-swim-run event.