Sunday, September 20, 2009
Javier, Torres tops 3rd leg duathlon series

ROBENO  Javier and Monica Torres were in their sharp forms to emerged champions in the 3rd leg of the Powerade National Duathlon Open Series yesterday at Macapagal Avenue, Pasay City.

Robeno cashed in on the no-show of second leg champion Niel  Catiil as he led from start to finish in the 7.5k run, 50k bike and 3.5k run event organized by Thumbie and Popo Remigio and sanctioned by Triathlon Association of the Philippines.

Catiil who defeated Robeno in the last edition, decided to skip the race for a much needed rest after competing in two international tournaments the past months.

The 24-year old Robeno had splits of 24:41, 50:01 and 13:45.65 for an accumulated clockings of one hour, 28 minutes and 27.65 seconds to spoil the challenge of fellow national players August Benedicto (1:31:32.65) and Carlo Jose Pedregosa (1:32:25.18).

It was his second win in this series as Robeno, sponsored by 101 Cycling Club-PASG, topped the first leg of the race presented by Powerade.

“I’ve been doing well since I trained under coach Pedring Pedregosa in Tarlac. This is part of my preparation for the Asian Duathlon  Championships in Subic in November where I hope to emerged as the best Filipino finisher,” said Robeno who hails from Sto. Tomas, Pangasinan.

The reigning national duathlon champion Torres was also the runaway winner in the distaff side to record her second straight victory in this event held in cooperation with the City of Pasay.

Ranked fifth in Asia, the 25 year old Torres was in her best element as she finished sixth overall in a field of 200 duathletes with her time of one hour, 38 minutes and 30.30 seconds.

“I was really expecting to win because the other members of the national team skip this event. But the challenge for me was to race against the men and I’m happy I did well today,” said Torres,

A far second is Mirasol Abad with 1:58.06 clocking while Belle Grandinetti took third with 1:59.02 time.

Competitions were also held in the different age groups with Kelvin Raphael Dumol (16 to 19), Saul Anthony Sibayan (20-24), Timmy Santos (25-29), Jeff Valdez (30-34), Rene Ricardo Tayag (35-39), Romeo Marquez (40-49), Joevic Pajarillo (45-49) and Alvin Alindogan (50 and above) winning in the male while Karen Lloyd (16-19), Jean Claire Pineda (20-29), Junie Santos (30-39) and Sheri Baghrie (40-44) topping the female class.

Remigio announced that the fourth and final leg will be staged by December and competition will be held in the standard distance.