(Saipan, Northern Marianas) – Australian Brodie Gardner and Austrian Carina Wasle captured the 15th annual XTERRA Saipan Championship titles on a picture-perfect day in the Northern Marianas on Saturday.

For Gardner, picking up his first-ever XTERRA World Tour win was all about timing … as in, just in time.

“I had troubles with my visa on Thursday so couldn’t get out of Australia,” he explained.  “Worked on the problem all night and the next day and with the help of a lot people back home I was able to catch a flight out yesterday and I just here at about 2am this morning.”

Roughly seven hours later Gardner was the champ.

“I led out of the swim and went as hard as I could not to give it up,” said Gardner, 29, who works full-time as a strength and conditioning couch on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

“I got lost in the caves, went right instead of left, bumped into the walls. It was pitch black in there.  Then I was trying to enjoy how pretty the beach run was except I was tired and I didn’t know how far I had left to go so just had to keep my focus and keep going through the finish line.”

His winning time of 2:52:46 was more than one-minute faster than runner-up Takahiro Ogasawara from Japan. Joe Miller from the Philippines finished third.

In the women’s race Wasle came out of the water right behind Belinda Hadden and Renata Bucher, got in the lead early on the bike and never let go.

“I felt very good,” said Wasle.  “I had a good training camp in South Africa at the beginning of the year and felt really strong today.”

It’s the 12th world tour win in the storied career of Carina Wasle, and her second in three years here in Saipan.

“I love this place, and have friends here that I have to come see every year,” said Wasle.  “It’s a really beautiful course.  It tests you a lot.  The run is very technical.  It’s just a very special course with the jungle and the caves. There is no race quite like this one.”

Wasle will now head back to Europe for the XTERRA European Tour season-opener in Malta, then go to XTERRA Reunion before continuing on the Asia-Pacific Tour in Australia and Malaysia.  She is one of the most adventurous, well-traveled XTERRA elites of all-time since her debut in 2005.

“It’s part of my life to travel and train and race.  I love to visit the countries and experience the culture. It’s a good life,” said Wasle.

Mieko Carey finished 2nd in the women’s race, followed by 7-time Saipan Champ Renata Bucher in third.

Pos Name, NAT Time S B R Points 1 Brodie Gardner, AUS 2:52:46 15:21 1:33:40 1:03:45 100 2 Takahiro Ogasawara, JPN 2:54:14 17:10 1:33:27 1:03:37 90 3 Joe Miller, PHI 3:05:03 17:03 1:41:19 1:06:41 82 4 Kaon Cho, KOR 3:21:08 17:21 1:50:47 1:13:00 75 Pos Name, NAT Time S B R Points 1 Carina Wasle, AUT 3:05:40 17:16 1:43:06 1:05:18 100 2 Mieko Carey, JPN 3:12:40 17:20 1:44:31 1:10:49 90 3 Renata Bucher, SUI 3:22:38 17:02 1:52:16 1:13:20 82 4 Belinda Hadden, AUS 3:40:21 17:00 2:05:18 1:18:03 75

Complete Results

XTERRA SAIPAN ALL-TIME PRO WINNERS Year Men Women 2002 Mike Vine Jamie Whitmore 2003 Jason Chalker Jamie Whitmore 2004 Olivier Marceau Jamie Whitmore 2005 Olivier Marceau Renata Bucher 2006 Olivier Marceau Renata Bucher 2007 Olivier Marceau Renata Bucher 2008 Andrew Noble Renata Bucher 2009 Sam Gardner Renata Bucher 2010 Sam Gardner Renata Bucher 2011 Sam Gardner Shonny Vanlandingham 2012 Ben Allen Renata Bucher 2013 Ben Allen Jacqui Slack 2014 Ben Allen Carina Wasle 2015 Ben Allen Jacqui Slack 2016 Brodie Gardner Carina Wasle

THE OFF-ROAD TO LANGKAWI, MALAYSIA

XTERRA Saipan was the third of six races in the 2015-2016 XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour where pros and amateurs count their best three scores (the finale in Malaysia counts double).

With the win Gardner moves into second-place in the Tour standings with 182 points (he was third in the Philippines) while Ogasawara continues to lead the men’s tour title chase with three scoring races and 247 points.

Reigning XTERRA Japan champion Mieko Carey is in the lead of the women’s tour chase with 272 points followed by Lizzie Orchard and Wasle.

Next up on the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour is XTERRA New Zealand (April 16, 2016), followed a week later by the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship in Australia (April 23, 2016) and then the tour finale at XTERRA Malaysia (May 7, 2016).

XTERRA ASIA-PACIFIC TOUR ELITE STANDINGS, tentative after 3 events

PL NAME JPN PHI SAIPAN NZL AUS MAS TOT 1 Takahiro Ogasawara, JPN 82 75 90 247 2 Brodie Gardner, AUS DNS 82 100 182 3 Charlie Epperson, USA 75 69 DNS 144 4 Joe Miller, PHI DNS 49 82 131 5 Kaon Cho, KOR 53 DNS 75 128 6 Cameron Oneal, USA 63 53 DNS 116 7 Courtney Atkinson, AUS 100 DNS DNS 100 8 Bradley Weiss, RSA DNS 100 DNS 100 9 Cedric Lassonde, FRA 90 DNS DNS 90 10 Ben Allen, AUS DNS 90 DNS 90 11 Taro Shirato, JPN 69 DNS DNS 69 12 Taylor Charlton, AUS DNS 63 DNS 63 13 Hsieh Jason, HKG 58 DNS DNS 58 14 Michal Bucek, SVK DNS 58 DNS 58 15 Barry Lee, MAS DNS 45 DNS 45 PL NAME JPN PHI SAIPAN AUS NZL MAS TOT 1 Mieko Carey, USA 100 82 90 272 2 Lizzie Orchard, NZL 90 100 DNS 190 3 Carina Wasle, AUT DNS DNS 100 100 4 Jacqui Slack, GBR DNS 90 DNS 90 5 Renata Bucher, SUI DNS DNS 82 82 6 Belinda Hadden, AUS DNS DNS 75 75

2016 XTERRA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS

XTERRA Saipan was the fourth of 37 events where the fastest amateur athletes from around the world could qualify to race at the 21st annual XTERRA World Championship at Kapalua, Maui on October 23.

DATE WORLD TOUR EVENT LOCATION or WINNERS
7-Feb XTERRA Philippines Brad Weiss/Lizzie Orchard 21-Feb XTERRA South Africa Brad Weiss/Flora Duffy 5-Mar XTERRA Motatapu Olly Shaw/Mary Gray 12-Mar XTERRA Saipan Brodie Gardner/Carina Wasle 20-Mar XTERRA Costa Rica Playa Reserva Conchal 26-Mar XTERRA Argentina Dique Ullum, San Juan 3-Apr XTERRA Malta Majjistral Nature Reserve 16-Apr XTERRA New Zealand Rotorua, North Island 17-Apr XTERRA La Reunion La Reunion Island 23-Apr XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship Jervis Bay, NSW, Australia 7-May XTERRA Malaysia / XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour Championship Langkawi 7-May XTERRA Brazil Ilhabela, São Paulo 7-May XTERRA Greece Vouliagmeni 14-May XTERRA Tahiti Papeete 21-May XTERRA Oak Mountain State Park Pelham, Shelby County, AL, USA 21-May XTERRA Portugal Golega 11-Jun XTERRA Belgium Namur 25-Jun XTERRA Switzerland Vallee de Joux 25-Jun XTERRA Mine over Matter Milton, Ontario, Canada 3-Jul XTERRA France Xonrupt 10-Jul XTERRA Victoria Victoria, B.C., Canada 16-Jul XTERRA Beaver Creek Beaver Creek, CO, USA 23-Jul XTERRA Parry Sound Ontario, Canada 31-Jul XTERRA Italy Lago Di Scanno 31-Jul XTERRA Dominican Republic Barahona 6-Aug XTERRA Mexico Tapalpa 7-Aug XTERRA Poland Krakow 13-Aug XTERRA Sweden Hellsgaarten, Stockholm 14-Aug XTERRA Canmore Canmore, Alberta, Canada 20-Aug XTERRA Germany – XTERRA European Championship Zittau 27-Aug XTERRA Sleeping Giant Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada 27-Aug XTERRA Korea Daeahn Reservoir, Wonju City 3-Sep  XTERRA Japan Hokkaido 4-Sep XTERRA Denmark Mons Klint 4-Sep XTERRA Quebec Quebec City, Quebec 11-Sep XTERRA Woolastook New Brunswick, Canada 17-Sep XTERRA USA / Pan Am Championship Ogden, Utah, USA 23-Oct XTERRA World Championship Kapalua, Maui

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