Japan rules Asian Duathlon

MANILA, Philippines - Asian triathlon powerhouse Japan captured both the men’s and women’s elite championships in the Asian Duathlon Championship at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center in Subic Bay Freeport Sunday.

Yuya Fukaura, Japan’s top ranked duathlete and No. 10 on the International Triathlon Union (ITU) ranking, emerged the men’s Asian champion despite finishing fourth behind the trio of top overall finishers but all non-Asians Damien Derobert from France, Australian Raohael Baugh, and world No. 1 Sergey Yakovlev from Russia.

Fukaura clocked 1:51.35, a few minutes behind Derobert’s 1:49.24. Baugh turned in a 1:49.36 clocking in the 10K run-40K bike-5K run race organized by the Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) in partnership with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and the Philippine Sports Commission.

 “The weather was so hot that I could not get away from the others, but it was not a difficult course. I had a good run but I was tired going into the last 500 meters of the final run,” said Derobert who placed second in this year’s world duathlon championship in Concord in America.

The best local finisher in the division was Cagayan de Oro’s Neil Catiil, last year’s Philippine International Duathlon champion in Clark, Pampanga, who wound up fifth overall in 1:53.03.

“My target was to finish among the top five since the field was strong,” said Catiil. “I lost steam in the final run because I had to make a rally in the bike leg.”

It was, however, enough to catapult Catiil to second place behind Fukaura in the Asian championship with another Filipino, August Benedicto, finishing third in 1:55.46 and sixth overall.

Airi Sawada completed Japan’s sweep of the event as she topped the distaff side. She finish second overall to Czech Radka Vodickova, who clocked 2:04.44 to Sawada’s 2:05.39.

“It was a hard race for me as there was no one alternating with me in pacing in the bike leg. My legs got very tired, also I live in Sapporo which is very cold and here it was very hot,” said Sawada.

National duathlon champion Monica Torres finished third overall in 2:08.10 and took second place in the Asian championship behind Sawada.

Lea Coline Langit, the country’s top triathlete, clocked 2:09.22 to finish third in the Asian level.

Japan added the elite under-23 title to its collection with Masaaki Kurihara winning the category in 1:51.17 and matched by Hong Kong’s Joyce Cheung Ting Yan, clocking 2:13:47 to win in the distaff side.