Chinese dominate triathlon

SUBIC BAY, Philippines – China completed its domination of the 16th Subic Bay International Triathlon yesterday at the Subic Freeport as defending champion Daniel Lee Chi Wo from Hongkong together with Yi Ming Zhang and Li Wei Sun from the mainland, swept the top 3 places in the men’s elite division.

The 32-year-old Lee Chi Wo, a veteran of the Athens and Beijing Olympics, executed his game plan to perfection, showing up Zhang in the initial 1.5K swim leg at Dungaree beach, leading a three-man lead pack in the bike leg, and stepping up the pace in the final 10K run leg, dropping Sun after the first loop of the run part.

“I expected to do well in this race as I have been racing lately and I am in good condition, “ said Lee Chi Wo, a silver medalist in the 2006 Asian Games and gold medal winner in the triathlon event of the Asian beach games in Bali, Indonesia last year.

Zhang, 23, who is ranked first in his country, found the hilly bike course more difficult than the final run leg.

“ I could not catch up with him anymore, Daniel was running too fast for me, “ said Zhang who clocked 1:59.55 to Lee Chi Wo’s 1:58.30.

Third and fourth in the race backed by the PSC, Speedo, Globe, Gatorade, Sunkist, Vitwater, David’s Salon, Fitness First, Rudy Project, and the Asian Centre for Insulation of the Philippines, were Sun (2:00.26) and Australian Dane Robinson (2:02.58).

Fifth was national triathlete Neil Catiil from Cagayan de Oro (2:03.57). He had the best split time of 1:04.32 in the bike leg.

Other Filipinos in the top 10 were former national champion George Vilog (8th, 2:11.58) and Fil-Am Arland Macasieb (9th , 2:13.52).

The male Under 23 race was another all-China show as Hongkong’s young triathletes duplicated their seniors’ performance with Ivan Lo Ching Hin, Dickson Joe Dick tam, and Ricco Chan Ye Ko capturing the top 3 places, clocking 2:07.26, 2:11.46, and 2:15.46, respectively, with local bet Rowel odonio squeezing himself into fourth place in 2:17.17 with another HK bet Fun Ho kong rounding out the top 5 in 2:19.21.

A day earlier, Chinese female elite triathletes Yun Lu and Yi Zhang also finished 1- 2 in 2:10.34 and 2:10, respectively. The other finishers were Australian Michelle Wu (2:11.59), lone Japanese bet Hideko kikuchi (2:12.04), and top local triathlete Lea Coline Langit (2:20.13).