This year over 1, 600 shoes padded across the beautiful island of Saipan with the first race igniting at 4:30 am Saturday morning. Satoshi Imoto zoomed past the finish line to endure the grueling full marathon race after 2:51:39 to bag the coveted first place award.
Coming in at second place came Hidekatsu Kuroda who clocked in at 2:51:09 followed by Kentaro Uno, who happened to carry the No.1 bib in the race card off a 3:02:12 record.
Satoshi Setoguchi pushed his efforts to sprint the last one hundred meters to finish at 3:06:05 beating Masahiko Nagasaka 3:09:41 to seal the top 5 finishers club. A total of 195 runners (male) signed up for the full marathon category of the race.
The women were not left behind during the race and pulled in an amazing record of 3:14:09 after Norkio Hirao dashed past the line to send the spectators in a wild frenzy. Following Hirao came Saipan’s Mamiko Oshima-Berger at 3:16:28.
Yukiko Sugiyama took a little longer to finish the grueling race but nonetheless she rocketed past the finish line at 3:40:04 followed by Kimi Yamashita who streaked past the end mark at 3:47:01 and last but not least to seal the top 5 finishers came Sachiko Suzuki at 3:51:45. 131 female runners signed up for this the full marathon category.
In the Half Marathon category Michael Gaitian sprinted the last 50 meters of the race to time n at 1:20:18 followed by Kazuharu Muto at 1:26:34.
In third place came Rico Flores at 1:28:17 to beat Yoshiharu Watanabe who timed in two minutes later at 1:28:17. To complete the top 5 finishers, Saipan’s Keum Bae Jin clocked in at 1:30:06. 114 runners signed up to compete in the half marathon run (male).
In the female category the women refused to be left behind. Amber Sarkinnen ended the race at 1:43:57 followed by Sayuri Yuyama at 1:45:33. Kazumo Suzuki did not let anything et in her way to finish at 1:53:17 to beat Nami Okomoto by a hairline 1:54:46.
Last but not least came Mariko Ueda who garnered a 1:57:39 record. 99 (female) runners signed up to take part in this category.
In the shortest category of the race Takeshi Ayoama finished the race in a speedy record of 36 minutes and 35 seconds followed by Papu Castro at 37 minutes at 15 seconds.
Tsubasa Ito refused to be left behind and sprinted even faster in the last 25 meters of the race to clock in at 37 minutes and 23 seconds beating Hiroshi Seino who zoomed past the finish line at 40 minutes and 33 seconds.
Last but not least to complete the fabulous five came Mitsuri Kimura who timed in after 41 minutes and 56 seconds. 125 (male) runners graced this part of the race.
Noriko was the first place female finisher for the ten kilometer race after whirling past the finish line at 43 minutes and 43 seconds. Following Jim came Akiko Miller who time in at 48 minutes and 27 seconds who surged past Kazuyo Itagaki at 8 minutes and 27 seconds and last but not least came Saihong Wang at 51 minutes and 32 seconds.
Many runners came in different suits and customs. It certainly looked like a parade of colorful outfits and one runner was carrying tuba while one runner suited up to match the comical character Spiderman to give humor to the other participants of the race.
