Philippine triathletes to test water in Asian Games

GUANZHOU, Guangdong, China – Triathlon president Tom Carrasco honestly believes his junior triathlete Nikko Huelgas and veteran Neil Catiil don’t have a Chinaman’s chance of winning a medal in the Asian Games but the Games will determine how far they can go in future international competitions.

“My view is that we are still on the ‘building blocks’ stage as far as developing our home grown triathletes are concerned,” said Carrasco, who said the Philippines, which went into the sport only five years ago, is light years behind Asian powers China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Uzbekistan.

“I have high hopes for Nikko who, on his only second year of competing and only 19, has shown tremendous improvement in all the three disciplines (swim, bike, run). We will be investing a lot on this boy’s career.”

Huelgas, a member of the swimming team of La Salle where he is a second year marketing student, has made huge strides since he finished first in last year’s PSC Aquathlon, the SuperTriKids Aquathlon and the Carmaya Coast Aquathlon.

His high performance camp in Subic from March to May this year further improved his clocking recently.

He turned in a time of 2:07:14 at the Hong Kong Triathlon last month. Huegas ruled the Speedo National Age Group Triathlon in January and finished 11th in the Elite men (2:03.07) at the ITU I-Lan Triahlon Asian Cup last September.

“For Neil though he’s our best triathlete this time, he has to focus more on his swim. A 23-minute swim in the 1,500 meters in an Olympic distance race is a huge disadvantage even if he can bike and run competitively,” said Carrasco of Catiil, 24, who is 18th in the ITU duathlon ranking and No. 21 in the ASTC triathlon ranking behind triathletes from Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea and Uzbekistan.

Catiil, a business administration graduate from Bukidnon State University, emerged as the country’s top elite athlete in 2009 when he ruled the ITU Singapore International Triathlon (August) and was the top Filipino Elite in the Iron Man 70.3 in Camarines Sur.

“Nikko has a more balanced competitive chance and he will soon swim a sub 20 minute in the 1,500 meters. Our modest target this year is a top 10 for the two, then move up to top 5 in 2011, then hopefully a podium finish in the Asian championships,” said Carrasco.