Laoag, Cagayan de Oro stage Milo run elims Sunday

MANILA, Philippines - Elimination of the 33rd National Milo Marathon shifts to Laoag and Cagayan de Oro this Sunday.

Laoag and Cagayan attracted 10,000 runners competing in four different age categories, with 21K as the main course. The three other categories are 3K, 5K and 10K.

Organizers of the 35-year-old footrace set a 1:15 qualifying time for men and 1:30 for women, deviating from the previous races where the top three runners in each division qualified for the finals.

”Competitors not just go for the prize, but importantly must break the time barriers to run in the finals,” said Milo sports events chief Pat Goc-Ong.

Runners who surpass the qualifying mark automatically advance to the finals, apart from the P10,000, P6,000 and P4,000 which will go to the top three runners in both men and women.

Former Gintong Alay executive director now Ilocos Norte Governor Michael Keon, himself a running buff, is invited to fire the 5:30 a.m. starting gun for the 21K elimination run in Laoag. The runners will run on the main streets of Laoag and end inside the Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos Sports Complex.

During his time as Gintong Alay chief, Keon molded and developed countless athletes that included Lydia de Vega, Elma Muros, Isidro del Prado, Honesto Larce, Romeo Gido, Hector Begeo and Mario Castro.

The Laoag leg is the sixth in Luzon since Subic and the Cagayan de Oro is the fifth in Mindanao since Dipolog.

Qualifiers in the 26 nationwide elimination races supported by the Department of Tourism and Manila Bay View Park Hotel and supervised by race director Rudy Biscocho will converge in Manila in October for the finals with the men and women champions each getting P75,000 plus handcrafted glass trophies.

Eduardo Buenavista is the defending men’s champion and fellow Southeast Asian Games bound Mercedita Manipol the reigning women title-holder.