Chicano, Allado rule Dagupan triathlon

MANILA, Philippines - National mainstay John Chicano showed up in true form even as teeners James Allado and Shen Versoza displayed their stuff in their respective categories in the first-ever Dagupan Invitational Triathlon yesterday in Dagupan.

Dagupan City Cycling Club finished second in the team relay and Frederick Mendoza topping the All-Dagupan category.

“The number of participants exceeded my expectations,” said Dagupan City Mayor Fernandez, referring to the 180 triathletes that competed in the Standard (1.5K swim–40 K bike–10 K run) and Sprint (750M swim–25 Km bike–5 K run) distances.

“I want to thank the people of Dagupan for their support and the participants for coming over to compete. I hope that with the successful Dagupan Invitational Triathlon we will be given the chance to host a bigger tour- nament next year such as the National Age Group Triathlon (NAGT),” added Fernandez, who gave her all-out support by allowing full closure of roads used in the event presented by Smart, CSI Group of Companies, PTT, GMA-7 and Statmed.

Chicano anchored his campaign on the bike leg held at a relatively flat course to break away from his rivals leading to the meet’s best time at one hour, 52 minutes, 37 seconds and record his second victory in four races this year.

“I was third in the swim, but took the lead in the transition then poured it all in the bike phase,” said Chicano, who received P15,000 for his effort.

Sante Barley’s Robinson Esteves took second in 1:57:17 while Youth Olympic Games candidate Jimuel Patilan took third in 2:05:12. They took home P10,000 and P5,000 cash prizes.

The 18-year old Allado, meanwhile, controlled the pace in the sprint distance in 1:07:49 mark for his second win in two races since he shifted to triathlon from duathlon last November. Versoza, a Palarong Pambansa veteran, banked on her strength in the swim and bike to leave behind her rivals and win the distaff side in 1:18:47.

“This is my first triathlon race and I just wanted to try the sport.  I’m glad that I won,” said the 19-year old Versoza who hails from Lingayen.

Dagupan City Cycling club registered 2:26:12 time and although they were more than 15 minutes behind champion DRX Sign Maker (2:10:27), the performance still is re- markable since this is the first time that the team competed in this endurance sport.

Age Group winners in the male were Noel Eliezar Navarro (18-24), Demy Calpito (25-29), Renato Sambrano (30-34), Jefferson Valdez (35-39), Julian Valencia (40-44), Eman Ajena (45-49), Doddie Dino Jr. (50-54), and Butch Ydia (55-59).Kriska Sto. Domingo (18-24), Chloe Jane Ong (25-29), Anna Liza Maraan (35-39), Gladys Abigail Honarde (40-44) and Nancy Reyes (45-49) rounded the champions in the female side.

Fausto, who is head of Triathlon Associa- tion of the Philippines (TRAP) junior grass- roots development program, thanked Mayor Fernandez and Councilor Reyna for their sup- port and pledged to convince TRAP to hold a first-ever NAGT Northern Luzon leg in 2015.

The event was organized by Teambikestop under Melvin Fausto and held in cooperation with the city government of Dagupan headed by Mayor Belen Fernandez with support from Councilor Karlos Liberato Reyna IV and Dr. Cicel Manaois-Reyna.