Australian, Canadian share same birthday, triathlon honors

PILI, Camarines Sur, Philippines  – Australian Pete Jacobs and Canadian Magali Tisseyre, born on the same day on Oct. 27, 1981, shared top honors in the Cobra Ironman 70.3 Philippines at the Camsur Water Sports Complex here yesterday.

Jacobs, fourth placer last year behind New Zealand’s Terenzo Bozzone, countryman Chris McCormack and another Kiwi Cameron Brown, came back strong, dominating the punishing race consisting of 1.2 miles of swimming, 58.6 miles of biking and 13.2 miles of running.

Jacobs, who performed well in the swim and bike stages only to slow down in the run part last year, was on top of his form all throughout this time, completing the event in three hours, 58 minutes and 41 seconds.

The Australian champ said he’s happy with his effort although he failed to beat Bozzone’s winning time of 51:25.53 last year.

“I got out strong and eventually built up enough confidence to finish strong and win this,” said Jacobs.

He still looked fresh when he reached the finish line, raising his two hands and shouting “Yeah” with a good smile on his face.

Tisseyre, for her part, clocked 4:27.01 to edge American legend Michellie Jones (4:29.23) and Aussie Rachael Paxton (4:42.38) in this event made possible by Sunrise president and Alaska CEO Wilfred Steven Uytengsu and host Gov. L-Ray Villafuerte.

Cobra Energy Drink, Alaska, CWC and Villafuerte, Globe Telecoms, the Department of Tourism, Philippine Airlines, Air Philippines, Century Tuna, Power Bar, David Salon, Dusit Thani Manila, Oakley, Timex, Prudential Guarantee, K-Swiss and Gatorade are the sponsors with The Philippine STAR, ABS-CBN Publishing and Multi-sports as media partners.

“I really needed a race like this because I’m building up for the World Championship,” said Tisseyre. “Instead of feeling tired, I felt like it was really refreshing for me.”

Bozzone, who couldn’t muster the same energy he showed last year, said he tried his best but Jacobs proved the better athlete this time.

“Pete (Jacobs) was just having a wonderful race. I was struggling to keep up with him. In the run, he just took me away,” said Bozzone, who settled for second in 4:05.54.

Swedish Fredrik Croneberg wound up third in 4:14.36 while Leon Griffin and Courtney Ogden of Australia, Erich Felbabel of Hong Kong and AJ Anderson also of from Down Under, came in next in 4:17.30, 4:21.00, 4:32.36 and 4:34.20, respectively.

Brown, who was one of the favorites being third placer last year, encountered problems in the bike portion and was forced to withdraw.

Neil Catiil, a 23-year-old pride of Cagayan de Oro, blew away the local field that included former national triathlon champion Fil-Am Arland Macasieb and last year’s top RP finisher Noy Jopson to emerge the best Filipino finisher.

Catiil timed 4:37.10 to finish eighth overall and bag the local purse worth P50,000.

Macasieb clocked 4:44.08 and Jopson 4:54.32.

Monica Torres reigned supreme in the distaff side in 5:00.19, edging Ani Karina de Leon and former RP No. 1 Alessandra Araulio Gonzales, who clocked 5:01.56 and 5:05.17, respectively.

“It’s a happy feeling winning again,” said the 26-year-old Torres.