Triathlon win caps Mangrobang's golden romp

MANILA, Philippines - Kim Mangrobang capped her remarkable performance in the Zambales Multisports Festival, ruling the triathlon to complete a three-gold medal romp in Candelaria, Zambales last Sunday.

Mangrobang, who earlier topped the duathlon and the 2-km open water swim last Saturday, clocked three hours, 17 minutes and four seconds to top the triathlon at the Dawal Beach Resort. She had split times of 24:11-1:47:56-1:04:57 in the 1.5-km swim, 50-km bike and 12-km run.

“I was a bit tired but I turned in a good performance because I trained really hard for this,” said Mangrobang, 19, in Filipino.

Matt O’Halloran, the Canadian eyeing naturalization to become part of the national men’s triathlon team, took his second crown in dominating fashion in the event organized by Zambales Gov. Hermogenes “Jun” Ebdane. He clocked an impressive time of 2:44:18 (29:27-1:30:56-52:53) to follow-up on his victory in the men’s 2-km open water swim.

A revelation in the men’s triathlon event of the competition supervised by provincial administrator Jun Omar Ebdane and sponsored by Chris Sports was John Leerams Chicano, a local bet from nearby Sta. Cruz town. The 20-year-old Chicano clocked 2:58:18, beating for the silver Camarines Sur’s Benjamin Raja (3:01:35).

Jeff Valdez copped the 30-39 years age division gold medal with a time of 3:06:04. Philip Atento finished second with 3:08:10 while Rayzon Galdonez took third place with 3:14:02.

Ebdane stressed the Zamba Multisports Festival has achieved its objective of putting the province on the sports tourism community map.

“The festival proved that if we have the political will, we can accomplish much. This was the first time in Zambales that such a sportsfest was held, and we not only made a big leap forward towards our goal of carving a niche for Zambales in the sports tourism industry, but we also gave aspiring local athletes a boost, and certainly another venue for them to test their mettle and improve their skills in sports,” he said, referring to Chicano.

National rider Tots Oledan won on opening-day Friday the men’s 120-km cycling race, and on Saturday, the Sunken Pleasure team from the University of the Philippines (UP) topped the elite division and Team Flying Pancakes of Manila the novice side of the Black Sands Ultimate Frisbee championships.

Reynaldo Borile Jr. (Boys Open), Milky Mae Tejares (Girls Open and Speed) and Hubert Kristian Guerrero (Speed Boys) topped the “Over the Top” wall-climbing competition co-organized by Grip Up also last Saturday.