He’s great, he’s smart, he’s Weiss

DARAGA, Albay, Philippines – Third time’s definitely a charm for South African Bradley Weiss.

After a fourth place effort and a runner-up finish in his first two races in the Philippines, Weiss finally scored a breakthrough men’s pro title via XTERRA Albay yesterday, sharing the spotlight with female world champ Flora Duffy of Bermuda, who lived up to her high billing in the women’s pro competition.

Weiss, 25, negotiated the tough terrains of Mayon Volcano’s surroundings in two hours, 28 minutes, beating by 58 seconds fast-rising 19-year-old Mexican Mauricio Mendez for the diadem that his countryman, retired Ben Hugo, won last year in Cebu.

Left in the wake of Weiss’ blistering finish was two-time XTERRA Philippines winner Ben Allen of Australia (2:33:51), who settled for bronze in the event organized by Sunrise Events, Inc.

“I won two weeks ago in South Africa but it wasn’t a championship race. So this is my first (major) championship ever and there couldn’t have been a better location for a first win,” said a triumphant Weiss. “It will boost my confidence a lot. I can build from here and I’m really excited to the rest of the year.”

Weiss came out of the swim at fourth spot, trailing Allen and Mauricio by at least 30 seconds. But he made up for lost ground by expertly navigating the single loop point to point bike race that passed through fire roads, grasslands, sands and rocky trails to boost his bid in the event held as part of Tourism Board’s “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” and “Visit the Philippines 2015” program.

“I knew the winner will end up first in the bike so I had to commit to riding as hard and as aggressive as I can. I kept telling myself in the bike to focus and compose myself and really just attack every corner that I could, squeeze everything I could,” he said.

Weiss finished the bike three minutes ahead of Allen and five up on Mendez. He then ran steadily to seal the win.

“I really worked hard on bike to stay with Brad Weiss but he was really too strong. And then Mauricio (Mendez) caught me on the run and passed. It wasn’t meant to be for me today,” said Allen.

“There’s still a lot of work to do but overall my performance was great,” said Mendez.

Duffy was hardly challenged in the distaff side.

The 27-year-old from Devonshire, Bermuda blitzed past the opposition in the 1.5K-swim, 35K bike and 10K run to handily win the crown in 2:43.40. British Jacqui Slack crossed the finish line some 12 minutes later at 2:56:51 while Australian Dimity Lee-Duke checked in third at 3:03:18, followed by Mieko Casey of Guam (3:06:39) and last year’s champion, Swiss Renata Bucher (3:12:53).

“I’m very pleased with my performance. I had a good swim, bike and run today (yesterday),” said Duffy, who led from the start of the race in the beach of Lidon, Sto. Domingo all the way to the finish at iconic Cagsawa Ruins here.

Jan Leerams Chicano and Anna Marissa Remigio ruled the Filipino Elite competitors. Chicano won the men’s plum in 2:51:17 over Billy Biag (2:54:04) and Emmanuel Comendador (2:56:25) while Remigio (3:47:45) nipped Noemi Andrea Galeos (4:01:48) and Angelica Yvonne Limjoco (4:25:17) for the ladies diadem.

The Top 3 triathletes received special medals and trophies sculpted from Mayon’s rocks from XTERRA Worldwide managing director Dave Nicholas, SEI president Wilfred Steven Uytengsu and Albay Gov. Joey Salceda.

It was the perfect way to start the season for Duffy, who had won seven XTERRA races last year, including the world championship, and intended to duplicate the feat in 2015.

“I didn’t expect it but I wanted it. I wanted to come here and win it but you never know in XTERRA; so many things can go wrong out there so I’m just pleased and relieved to cross the line and win,” said Duffy.