Gonzalez beats all comers in Pico de Loro triathlon

NASUGBU, Philippines – He doesn’t consider himself an exceptional swimmer, biker or runner. But with a well-balanced approach, he knew he could beat them all.

“I’m not exceptional. So, I had to balance them all,” said Peter Gonzalez who emerged the overall champion in the first Pico Tri Invitational last Saturday.

“The first thing I did was to check the start list, and see who was on it, see who was strong,” added Gonzalez, 41, former coach of the Philippine triathlon team.

Well, he turned out to be the strongest of them all, clocking one hour, 58 minutes, 54.74 seconds. His teammate at Bike King – Camilla Brooks – was the top female at 2:23:27.82.

They both received a warm round of applause from their hosts and fellow participants during the post-race dinner party at the candle-lit, Bali-inspired Brissa Bar.

It was the first triathlon race held at the Pico de Loro Beach and Country Club, a world-class hideaway carved by SM Land out of the picturesque Hamilo Coast of Batangas.

Certainly it won’t be the last, based on the success of the inaugural event sponsored by The Philippine STAR, Rexona, Rudy Project, Speedo, Vibram, Sun Coast, Chef Tony, Coca-Cola and Taal Vista.

Over a hundred participants, mostly from the business sector, and kids aged 10 and above, answered the starting gun fired by SM’s Elizabeth Sy, at around 2:30 p.m., under the blazing sun. 

The race consisted of a 1.2 km swim, 35 km bike and 8 km run, including a very challenging up-and-down course that made it doubly hard for all the participants.

The field included noted swimmers like Guy Concepcio and Eric Buhain, the former chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission and once hailed as Southeast Asia’s best athlete.

Concepcion and Buhain came out of the water first, just seconds apart. They were followed by Gonzalez, who eventually took the lead somewhere along the bike route.

Gonzalez crossed the finish line by himself, hardly showing any ill effects of an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury on his right knee, suffered early last year while playing basketball.

Prior to the race, Buhain made a lot of heads turn, not because people knew him as the SEA Games gold medalist but because of his brand-new look.

From as heavy as 245 lb, he’s now down to 185 lb. He took up cycling in 2009 and eventually got into triathlon, losing a lot of weight, looking younger and feeling stronger in the process.

He finished fourth in his first triathlon (age group 40-44) last year in Subic, and laughed hard when told he looked fit for the next SEA Games in Indonesia in November.

Buhain did not land in the top three of his group here, and was happy to trail Gonzalez, Concepcion (2:13:14.91) and Gregory Maranon (2:22:21.07) during the race.

“Mahirap dito. Madaming malalakas (It’s tough here. The field is strong),” said Buhain, who came with his wife, former congresswoman of the first district of Batangas.

The other winners in the men’s division were Joel Ferrer (55-above), Eduardo Francisco (50-54), Anthony Welsh (45-49), Levy Ang (35-39), Andy Leuterio (30-34) and Chrisopher Allison (18-29).

In the women’s side, sharing the honors and making heads turn as well were Rosalina Joson (45-49), Fiona Ottiger (40-44), Meshelle Villanueva (35-39) and Bea Locsin (18-29).

In the team relay competition, Polo Tri Super Studs won all the bragging rights, followed closely by Team Pico 3 and Team SMEG.

Now everybody’s looking forward to the next race at Pico.