(Northern Mariana Athletics) — Tania Tan has broken the CNMI record for the 3,000m with a time of 11:26:54, surpassing the 27-year-old record of 12:13.9, set by Carol Lynn Pierce in 1994 at the Micronesian Games in Guam.
Tan is a student at Fordham University where she is running both Cross Country and Track.
Tan ran for a new personal best on April 16 at the Stockton University Invite in Galloway, New Jersey, a NCAA-sanctioned event.
Tan said her goal going into the race was to try her hardest and hopefully earn a new personal best.
“I felt pretty confident going in because my training was going well and I felt good mentally and physically,” she added. “However, I haven’t run a 3,000m race [since the Covid-19 pandemic last year] so I had no expectations of how I would actually do. So when I saw my time after my race, I couldn’t believe that I broke my personal best time by almost one minute.”
Tan is no stranger to competitive running in the CNMI. She is a veteran of the Saipan International School Cross Country and Track teams which she led in distance events.
“Tania is a very passionate runner,” said SIS headmaster Ron Snyder and Northern Mariana Athletics distance running coach, “She represented SIS well in all of our meets locally and made us proud in the many international competitions she raced in during her high school years. She is a role model to our up-and-coming squad of runners both male and female.”
Tan is a two-time national runner for Cross Country at the Asia Pacific Cross Country Invitational. She represented the CNMI in the 2018 Oceania Cross Country Championships in Australia, the XVI Pacific Games in Samoa and the Oceania Micronesian Regional Championships in 2018 where she set her previous personal record of 12:20:99.
According to Robin Sapong, general secretary of Northern Mariana Athletics, “Tania continues to inspire female athletes in the CNMI even though she is [in the U.S.]. She gathered a team of fellow classmates from SIS for the Run the Marianas virtual event, joined a Run Saipan team in the NMI Women’s Run and has signed up for the 10K Jedi Knight Category in the upcoming May the 4th Be With You, CNMI Run in honor of Star Wars Day. We have high expectations for her and look forward to many more records being set.”
Tania Tan, right, is a student at Fordham University where she is running Cross Country and Track.
Contributed photo
