The 29-year-old Airforceman, fresh from an already impressive victory two weeks ago in an Asian Duathlon Cup event in Thailand, added the Asian championship crown to his collection with an equally impressive come-from-behind victory in yesterday morning’s Clark-Asian Duathlon Championship held at the Clark Expo grounds in Clarkfield, Pampanga.
It was not an easy victory however for the Guagua native who kept alive his unbeaten streak in all duathlon races held inside Clark, including four straight national duathlon championship, as Australian guest entry Rafael Baugh and top seed Takashi Nakata with his high 30th ITU world ranking, conspiring against Mendoza, particularly in the initial run leg of the 10K run-40K bike-5K run race hosted by Clark Development Corporation, a major supporter of the national duathlon team.
"Alam ko hindi ko sila kaya dun sa 10K run, ang magiging strategy nila, tapos pagtutulungan nila ako dun sa takbo kaya maintain lang ako at sunod lang sa kanila. Alam ko sa bike kakayanin ko sila," said Mendoza, who finished the first run leg close to a minute behind Baugh and Nakata, even as he bucked leg cramps in the third loop of the bike leg.
And even in the next bike leg, the two foreign bets took turns in pacing the field, "pero kinuha ko sila sa kurba pagdating ng third loop, tapos nilayo ko na nang husto, kung abutan man nila ako, malapit na sa finish at kahit igapang ko pa ito, tatapusin ko ang karera," added the father of five after he crossed the finish line all alone in 1:55.47 to the delight of the local crowd on hand at the finish including CDC president Antonio Ng.
When asked of his future plans for duathlon, Mendoza, who shifted from fulltime cycling to duathlon several years ago after realizing he had better chances to make good in this multi-discipline sport, he replied, "pag-iisipan ko yung pagsali pa sa mga bike tour, baka masira pa ako duon, dito sa duathlon mas maganda ang performance ko."
Mendoza thus avenged his defeat to Japanese Kodo Hiramatsu in the 2002 Asian Duathlon held in Subic.
Baugh finished second overall in 1:57.11 but being a non-Asian, he did not qualify in the Asian Championship which pushed Hiramatsu to second place in the Asian level, clocking 1:57.45 while erstwhile pacer Nakata faded to third in 1:58.24 while national triathlon champion Arland Macasieb barely finished out of the podium with his fourth place performance in 1:58.44.
In the U-23 race, Hongkong bet Lamuel Lau Ching Yin finished first in 1:59.19 followed by two Filipinos, national team member Augusto Benedicto in 2:07.16, and Jay-Ar Obial in 2:11.38.
Mendoza, Hiramatsu, and Nakata received P40,000, P30,000, and P20,000 respectively, the same amount received by the top three female finishers which featured an All-Filipino line-up as the other female foreign entries, mostly young triathletes from Hongkong, Korea and Macau, opted to join the sprint race.