MANILA, Philippines - Marion Kim Mangrobang struck gold in only her second race at an Olympic distance as the former RP No. 1 junior triathlete conquered the international triathlon test event of the second Asian Beach Games recently in Muscat, Oman.
Mangrobang didn’t waver in the stifling heat at the Al Hail beach, making a strong charge in the bike leg to pull away from her toughest rivals, Hong Kong’s Edith Li Yik Lam, and Thailand’s Mattika Maneekaew, en route to the top podium finish in the women’s division.
The lass from Sta. Rosa, Laguna submitted a winning time of 2:19, besting the Thai and the Hong Kong bets, whose bid was stymied by a leak on her bike, by over four and eight minutes.
According to Australian coach Dan Brown, who accompanied Mangrobang to the race, the 19-year-old triathlete had shown great improvement since her first stint in the 1.5K swim, 40K bike,10K run distance at the Hong Kong ITU Triathlon Asian Cup. She logged 2:31:33 in placing fourth in that Hong Kong meet held a week prior to Oman’s.
“She seemed at a new level from HK (the previous) week and ran out of the transitions with a confident fast stride,” Brown, who’s conducting a training camp for RP triathletes as part of the IOC Solidarity program, said in an email from Oman.
“I thought that she would blow for sure at the pace she was running but to her credit, she handled the heat very well and held her lead to finish first,” he added.
Philip “Epoy” Jurolan, the other RP entry in the test race for the Dec. 8-16 Asian Beach Games, also gave a good account of himself, finishing fifth in the men’s competition won by the Netherlands’ Luc van Es.
Making his debut at Olympic distance triathlon, the 18-year-old Jurolan trailed the leaders by 30 seconds in the swim leg but charged back hard in the bike and run stages for his 2:20 clocking, good for No. 5 behind Van Es’ 1:58.
“I was very impressed with both of them and they have a big future as they are so young and both swim well,” said Brown.