SUBIC Bay—Asian triathlon powerhouse Japan swept the men’s and women’s elite championships yesterday in the Asian Duathlon Championship held just outside the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center here.
Yuya Fukaura, Japan’s top-ranked duathlete and ranked 10th by the International Triathlon Union, ruled the men’s event despite finishing 4th behind the trio of top overall finishers but non-Asians Damien Derobert of France, Australian Raohael Baugh and world no. 1 Sergey Yakovlev of Russia.
Fukaura clocked 1:51.35, a few minutes behind Derobert’s 1:49.24, while Baugh came in at 1:49.36. Yakovlev finished third in the 10K run-40K bike-5K run race organized by the Triathlon Association of the Philippines with TRAP in partnership with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and the Philippine Sports Commission.
The 28-year-old Dorebert, who runs a sports center for the French military, said he was bothered by the heat.
“The weather was so hot that I could not escape from the others. It wasn’t really a difficult course. I had a good run but I was tired going into the last 500 meters of the final run,” said the Frenchman, who placed second in this year’s world duathlon championship in Concord in America. But with the win here, Dorebert took the top place in this year’s ITU rankings.
Emerging as the best local finisher in the division was Cagayan de Oro’s 23-year-old national duathlete Neil Catiil, last year’s Philippine International Duathlon champion in Clark, Pampanga. He finished fifth overall in 1:53.03.
“Top 5 lang talaga target ko dito. Ang lakas ng field at naubos ako sa final run dahil naghabol ako sa bike leg. Nagulat ako sa start ng final 5K run, nagliparan silang lahat, ang bibilis,” said Catiil.
His finish though was enough to catapult him to second place behind Fukaura in the Asian championship, with another Filipino, August Benedicto placing 3rd in 1:55.46. Benedicto was 6th overall.
Airi Sawada, also of Japan, finished second overall behind Czech entry Radka Vodickova, who clocked 2:04.44 to Sawada’s 2:05.39.
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Vodickova said she is used to the heat as she had just stayed in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for two weeks and won the Powerman race there. “I had a good transition in T2 and from the bike, I was able to pull away from my Japanese opponent.”
National duathlon champion Monica Torres finished third overall in 2:08.10, but it was good enough to land her in second place in the Asian championship behind Sawada.
“Nagtulungan kami ni LC [Lea Coline Langit] sa bike kaya kami nakahabol pero mabibilis talaga sila sa bike. Masaya ako dahil best finish ko ito at ngayon ay di na ako nalalayuan nung mga kalaban ko,“ said Torres after the race also sponsored by Sunkist, Fitness First, Rudy Project, Globe, David’s Salon, Vitwater, Gatorade, and Asian Centre for Insulation.
