Named as regular members of the team were national champions Fil-Am Arland Macasieb and Sandra Araullo, together with Noel Salvador and Ani de Leon, with the latter just recently resetting the national women’s triathlon record with her top 10 performance at the Asian Triathlon Championships in Singapore.
Carrasco also named young triathletes Mikki Quilala, 17, and Mimi Lucas, 15, as national team reserves but will train together with the regular members. The six athletes topped the qualifying series conducted by TRAP to select the members of the team.
The qualifying races were the Bayawan National Triathlon, the Subic Bay International Triathlon, and the Asian Triathlon Championship.
"It will be a three-cornered fight between the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, however, I am more optimistic about the gold medal chances of our female members, in the men’s side, Arland has to work on his stamina to finish strong in the run leg," said Carrasco.
As part of the team’s training, depending on the funds he can source out, Carrasco will either bring the team to Australia for six weeks, or he will bring here instead Australian Rob Pickard to help the coaching staff prepare the team.
"We have already spent the training funds of our godfather sponsor Diners International Card, but we knew from the start that we will be needing additional training funds and that is what we are doing now, raising the money for the homestretch preparation of our team," added Carrasco.
As of now, aside from the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, the other countries joining the triathlon event are Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar though Cambodia and Myanmar are only joining the men’s division of the event set Dec. 1 and 2 in Subic.