Mier upbeat on RP's chances in SEAG

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippines’ bets to the 2009 Asian Mountainbike Championships in Malaysia over the weekend had a dismal finish, but RP mountainbike coach Renato Mier remains hopeful they can still deliver the goods in this year’s Southeast Asian Games in Laos later this year.

Coach Renato Mier said two of the three RP bets for the Laos SEAG still have a good chance to win a medal — Nino Surban in the cross-country and Eleazar Barba in downhill.

“Medyo maglisod si Bitbit (Marites) sa akong tan-aw kung sa mountainbike, sa road (race) siguro nuon, naa pay chance. Si Niño and Barba, naa pay chance based lang sa ako tan-aw sa mga Southeast Asian countries na nangapil sa AMC,” said Mier.

Except for the lone  junior division entry, Cebuano John Rene Mier, not one of the RP elite montainbikers were able to get into the top 10 list.

The country sent four mountainbikers to Malaysia, three from Cebu and one from Dumaguete City.

Cross-country specialist, Niño Surban could only get into the top 20 while Marites Bitbit was not able to finish the race.

Eleazer Barba, Jr., a downhiller from Dumaguete, only finished 18th out of 24 riders in his debut.

John Rene Mier, in his first international mountainbike competition landed seventh.

Mier, however, missed to duplicate what Surban was able to achieve being a bronze medalist in his debut in the junior division some years ago. But, with the level of competition and having a much stronger field, they say, the teenager’s performance was good enough.

In the elite division, Surban could only make it to 20th place out of the 40 starters while Bitbit had a DNF due to some mechanical trouble out of the 16 female entries. – Caecent No-ot Magsumbol (THE FREEMAN)