By Roselyn B. Monroyo
Variety News Staff

(Second of a series)

ALL eyes were focused on Olivier Marceau and Renata Bucher when they won the 2007 XTERRA Saipan anew last Saturday, but there were three sexagenarians who deserved the same admiration as the Swiss duo, as they finished the grueling swim-bike-run leg despite their age, which was double than the two champions.
Sixty-four year old Ryuhei Yamada of Japan was among the three sexagenarians who joined the XTERRA Championships and won the 60& over division with a time of four hours, 15 minutes, 47 seconds.
The Japanese, who during the award ceremony was teased by the host saying Yamada and his wife are on a honeymoon on Saipan, finished 6st overall among the 91 participants in the XTERRA Championships.
Yamada timed in at 38:53 in the 1.5-k swim leg, 2:10:28 in the 30-k bike leg and 1:25:26 in the 12-k run leg.
Placing second was 60-year old Clyde Whitmore, who finished better than her daughter Jamie Whitmore. The three-time XTERRA Saipan women’s pro champion placed third behind Bucher and United Kingdom’s Julie Dibens.
Whitmore of the US clocked 36:10, 2:25:32 and 1:38:51 in the swim-bike-run legs. He placed 7 th overall.
The third place medal went to 61-year old G.L. Brown, also of the US, who timed in at 38:08, 2:21:01 and 1:56:00 in the swim-bike-run legs.
Top winners in other age groups included Saipan’s Mieko Carey (3:33:10) in the women’s 25-29 age group and Rachel Bandelin (4:16:25) in the 30 to 34, and the US’s Sueanne Clark (4:15:56) in the 35 to 39 and Susan Seay (4:01:22) in the 45 to 49.
In the men’s divisions, the first placers were Japan’s Hayato Katayama (3:18:27) in the 15 to 19 age group and Ryoichi Higashino (3:27:12) in the 20 to 24 division, Czech Republic’s Peter Vejvoda (3:01:35) in the 30 to 34, Jim McConnell in the 30 to 34, Gary Mandy (2:45:33) in the 35 to 39, Art Guerrero (3:20:06) in the 40 to 44, Yoshiko Nishiyama (3:37:35) in the 45 to 49, Keiji Matsuba (3:11:42) in the 50 to 54 and Saipan’s Florian Braig (3:41:39) in the 55 to 59.