Ballester, Martes retain crowns

National athletes Allan Ballester and Christabel Martes, toughened by the battles of Southeast Asia and the mountain roads of the Cordilleras, retained their Milo marathon titles yesterday in the usual fashion — convincingly — against an opposition that apparently did not have the heart of a winner.

Ballester, silver medalist in the last Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, came back from hibernation to rule the men’s competition, beating Navy teammate Crisanto Canillo by a wide margin to win in two hours, 23 minutes, 47 seconds.

Half an hour later, Martes, who closed the Philippines’ SEAG campaign last September with a gold in the women’s marathon, brushed aside injuries during a fall in training a week ago and a collision with 10K runners during the race to win her third Milo marathon title in three hours, 23 seconds.

The early morning drizzle provided a big relief for a record 7,452 runners, including competitors in the 10K, 5K and 3K side events, that answered the starting gun fired by Milo sports executive Jackbie Jaime. But the lack of worthy opposition made it doubly easier for the defending champions to clinch the title and the prize of P75,000 for men and P50,000 for women.

Roy Vence, who won the SEAG gold in Malaysia, and ruled the Milo marathon in 1998 and 1999, begged off from the competitions after an injury he suffered in last week’s AFP Olympics.

"From the start I knew I would win the race. If Roy had been here, it would have been a tough fight," said Ballester.

Hazel Madamba, a fixture in women’s marathon and a top contender for the title, just was not up to form and fainted in the arms of medical staff at the finish line.

The route started at the Quirino Grandstand, with the marathoners twice covering the length of Roxas Boulevard and part of Coastal Road near the Marina before heading back to where they started.

Ballester, 25, exploded into the lead towing Navy teammate Canillo in the first 10 kilometers on Roxas Boulevard but the latter just could not sustain the pace of the defending champion and faded back with the other pursuers on the halfway mark.

"I tried to push him on so he could break his own record of 2:23, but I had to leave him when he was slowing down," said Ballester, whose regimen includes thrice-a-week long distance running on the up-and-down roads outside Baguio where he and other members of the national athletic team are training.

Martes, a half-Ilocana born in La Trinidad, Benguet where she earned a college diploma in secondary education, was advised by her coach Mario Castro to drop out of the competition when she suffered a swollen knee after she fell on a pavement during training eight days earlier in Baguio.

She also almost quit in the first 10 kilometers of the race when she felt a hamstring pain and feared it might aggravate if she went on. She looked at her back and found nobody was trailing her, and with every ounce of courage, bravely fought on.

She ran all alone throughout the race but she crashed to the ground when she collided with 10-K competitors running on the opposite direction about seven kilometers to the finish line.

She picked herself up and finished the race, leaving her closest pursuer, Floredeliza Cachero, more then eight minutes behind.

Her mark was way below the 2:53.58 she posted in last year’s Milo Marathon. But at her worst, she was still the best.

"My coach was telling me to just stick to my goal of 3:10, and I’m happy I did more than that despite the setbacks," said Martes, who now made it three in a row following wins in 1999 (3:06.36) and 2000.

In the side event, Ramon Lorenzo of Sports Weekly won the media 5-K event, earning the prize of P2,500 and the bragging right as the first sportswriter to win the side event of the country’s longest- running marathon.

Ballester, a former volleyball player who was lured into the marathon by his illustrious brother Wilfredo, winner in 1985, 90 and 91, will use his P75,000 prize to finish construction of their three-bedroom family house in Los Banos, Laguna.

Martes, who is looking forward to a teaching or military career when she finally hangs her shoes, is also using the P50,000 prize to construct their six-bedroom house in La Trinidad.

Both houses were first constructed from the incentives they earned in the last SEA Games.