Friday, December 14, 2007
RP Triathletes and Duathletes in the SEAG: truly inspiring
By Ani Karina de Leon
Congratulations to our Filipino triathletes and duathletes in the SEAG races in Thailand . I was there as a friend, fan, and supporting coach, and I was so proud of all of them.
The first race on Saturday was the duathlon, with them men starting an hour and a half before the women. The run and bike courses were pretty straightforward, with some windy sections, but you could say that it was a relatively fast course. Ryan Mendoza, as always, dominated from the first leg onwards and never gave any of his contenders any real chance. The chase pack of three included our own Augusto Benedicto. He did his job well of blocking off for Ryan in the bike portion, even though I don't think he really needed to. It was a hard race for August all throughout, running with the pack the whole time, and a bit of a heartbreak because he gave it his best effort in the final sprint and missed the silver medal by a mere two seconds or so. He still won the bronze though, and a medal is a medal. He almost had to be given oxygen at the medical area, but he was quick to recover and was cheering on for his lady teammates later on.
The women's duathlon was led early on by the Thai racer, and much like the men's race, Ana Liza Dysanco was part of the pack of three chasers. Popo Remigio was running solo at 5th position. Mariana of Malaysia led Popo initially, but she crashed and Popo was able to up her placing and ward Mariana off. The Thai girl won and Ana Liza and Popo took 3rd and 4th, respectively.
The next day was the men's and women's triathlon events. We were hopeful for the two races because like the duathlon team, the triathlon team had been undergoing focused training in Thailand for two months already undery TBB, and looked and felt very much in shape.
The men's triathlon had a breakaway from Mok of Singapore right away from the swim but trailing not far behind was the duo of George Vilog and Arland Macasieb. They were still in contention because they were together and could work very well in the bike portion to chase Mok--which they did, predictably, on the second half of the bike leg. Coming into T2, Arland and George had built up a solid lead from Mok. I was cheering wildly and felt happy for them. They could win this!!! They deserved this Gold. Now to keep it. The run was two laps of 5km each, and at the halfway mark the standing was George, Mok, and Arland, with Arland suffering from tight legs and Mok slowly running up to him. Alas, another heartbreak as we saw that on the second lap Mok had already passed George and had built a gap of about 10 seconds. He also looked like he could maintain it, even though George was still in fighting form. In the meantime, Arland had already secured his third position as the fourth placer was far behind. In the end, Mok did get the gold with George finishing closely behind. We had a bit of drama at the finish line because the tears were a bit difficult to hold back. Arland followed suit and garnered his second SEAG bronze medal.
The ladies also had an expected leader in the swim portion in the person of Kimbeley Yap of Malaysia . Most of us know her as she always races in Subic and in fact was the defending champion for this event. Nevertheless, our very own Sandra Araullo and Mimi Lucas were, just like the RP men, working well together in the swim and hopped onto their bikes as a strong team. They had three minutes to make up. They were able to narrow the gap to about two minutes for the whole 40km, but Kimbeley was still ahead out of T2. We were still not giving up though. Sandra and Mimi both had heroic runs, and they raced like the pros that they were, giving it their best to the very end. But Kimbeley was really strong, and we had to give it to her. Our girls still brought home two medals out of two and broke the RP women's record in the process, and that is more than anyone can ask for.
I don't think people here realize how much work they put into their training and how many things they have to sacrifice to be there. Bravo to all our athletes in the SEAG and to all those who support them. You are our heroes.