Cebuanos conquer Singapore Marathon

CEBU, Philippines - Several Cebuano long-distance runners successfully finished the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon held in the Lion City recently.

The contingent included Atan and Jeson Guardo, Joel Garganera, Boying Rodriguez, Mark Laus, Arnold Palma, Ian Bagiuo and Cebu’s Marathon Man Raffy Uytiepo of The Freeman.

Also in the group were Genito Guardo and Jing Laus who ran the 10K and Cebu IBP president (Province) Ramsay Quijano who competed in the 21K half marathon. Singapore-based Cebuano architect Duever Durano joined the contingent at the starting line.

Among the Cebu runners, Laus was the fastest in 3:56, followed by Palma in 4:44. Garganera clocked 5:02, Jeson Guardo 5:56, Atan Guardo 6:30, Ian Baguio 6:30 Rodriguez 7:40, Delantar 8:40 and Uytiepo 7:20.

Uytiepo’s feat, however, was remarkable having no training at all. The grizzled veteran has finished over 300 races including 10 marathons before claiming his 11th. “I was just aiming to run in the 21K but after the 25K mark, I was still feeling good and decided to finish the race”, said Uytiepo.

Giving support to the Cebuano runners were Clarissa and Lovena Guardo, Audrey Garganera, Jennifer Delantar and Renee Quijano. Over 50,000 runners joined the run and was won by Kenyan Luke Kibet in 2:11:25.   (FREEMAN NEWS)