Whatever it was all about, his appointment could have been very important so he finished the run in a shortest time he possibly could and he retained his title during the 4th Powerade Banzai Half Marathon that kicked off near the precipice last Saturday.
Kabiriel who had just won a gold medal in Gold Coast, Australia weeks ago completed the 13-kilometer flat and trail run course in one hour and 36.09 minutes.
Last year, Kabiriel was also the first runner to emerge from the Tagan-tagan trail, finishing it in 1:30 minutes and topped the 3rd Banzai half-marathon.
He returned to Banzai Cliff 45 seconds ahead of his fellow Gold Coast winner, Matthew Mancao who finished in 1:36.54.
Finishing third was Ronald Villafria who finished the course in 1:39.31.
Mamiko Berger led the women completing the course in 1:46.19, followed by Kimiko Hazegawa who reached the finish line in 2:13.25 and Kanae Quinn finished third with 2:21.37.
In short run, Louie Tenorio was the first to hit the trail and clear its entire stretch from spider webs then, emerged in the open in 30 minutes and 13 seconds.
“I knew Mieko was behind me,” Tenorio said as he shared how he felt Mieko Carey would beat him any moment.
It was already in the jungle that he figured out Carey seemingly wanted to keep pace behind him to get rid of spider webs and of course, the spiders of different sizes and tones that festooned that run trail!
Perhaps, Carey who had proved herself in Japan XTERRA last month knew she was going to catch up on Tenorio as soon as there were just a few spiders and webs to be running through.
Of course, Tenorio did not clear the path for nothing.
He won the first place and behind him was who finished it in 30.19 minutes and topped the women’s division.
Max Simian won the second place completing the run course in 32.12 minutes, and Alex Racome settled for third with 33.07.
Trailing Carey was Terra Allen who finished it in 33.01 and Heather Kennedy went third with 33.34.
Aimed at bringing back Saipan’s inaugural XTERRA winner Jamie Whitmore to Saipan, the half marathon was attended by almost over 30 participants including Rep. Edward Salas.
Event organizer, Brad Ruszala said the off-road half marathon on Saipan has started getting international attention since 2006.
“This is one way of promoting Saipan to the rest of the world, and we had been getting a lot of support from generous sponsors,” he said.
The sponsors who committed to support the event include Transpac Group who donated Powerade, Foremost Crystal Clear bottled water, Subway sandwiches, Scoops ice cream, Powerade tattoos, and event T-shirts for the race.
