Young triathletes snare six medals ASian

MANILA, Philippines - The teenage triathletes led by gold medalist Yuan Chiongbian snared six medals and carried the day for the country in the recent K-Swiss ASTC Subic Bay Asian Triathlon Championships at the Subic Bay Freeport.

Chiongbian of Cebu City towed Brent Valelo of Clark and Lance Vincent Plaza of Laguna to an all-Filipino podium finish in the 13-14 years category.

En route to clinching the gold medal, Chiongbian covered the 350-meter swim/10-kilometer bike/2-5-km run in 35 minutes and 36 seconds. Lavelo was seven seconds adrift with Plaza checking in at 36:15.

Chiongbian’s female teammates in the same age-group of the championship sponsored by K-Swiss, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Tourism Department, Standard Insurance, Century Tuna, SPEEDO, David’s Salon, Asian Centre for Insulation Philippines (ACIP), Gatorade, Fitness First, Garmin, Canon, PLDT, Harbor Point Ayala Mall, SM Olongapo, Lighthouse Marina Resort and Philippine Sports Commission yielded more medals.

Shaia Ruth Uy, who likewise hails from Cebu City clocked 40:04 to bag the silver medal. Margarita de los Reyes of Quezon City finished 16 seconds behind, good for the bronze.

Completing the cast of Filipino teenaged medalists was Magali Echauz, daughter of Ernesto Echauz, the Philippine Sailing Association president.

Campaigning in the 15-16 age category (Youth Olympic Games aspirants), Echauz bowed to Thai Nichapat Kaewma in their battle for the gold medal. She clocked 1:01:57 over the 500-meter swim/18-kilometer bike/3.3-km run course.

With her feat, Echauz installed herself as the top contender, along with Louie Lalanto of Cagayan de Oro, for a slot in the Asian Youth Olympic Games (YOG) qualifier set for June in Kazakhstan.     

“We are happy over the success achieved by our youth triathletes. We are however monitoring the improvements of young triathletes from around Asia and therefore we have decided to invest more on the youth triathlon development program headed by coach Melvin Fausto,” said Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) President Tom Carrasco.