Chicano, Kilgroe top SEATA triathlon; foreign bets dominate YOG elims

MANILA, Philippines — John Chicano and Kim Kilgroe stamped their class in the South East Asian Triathlon Sprint Championship while the foreign bets dominated the boys’ and girls’ divisions in the Youth Olympic Games qualifying race in Subic yesterday.

Chicano lived up to the hype as he led a 1-2 finish for the host country in the men’s side with a 54.54 clocking with Andrew Remolino placing second in 55.38. Indonesian Jauhari Johari finished third in 55.44.

Kilgroe, 28, turned in a 1:02.37 clocking to beat Singapoream Phoebe Kee (1:04.28) with compatriot Ma. Claire Adorna, a SEA Games gold medal winner, finishing third in 1:06.51.

“I was pretty confident about winning  and felt good throughout the race. Now I am looking forward to the Asian Games in Indonesia later this year, “ said Kilgroe, who has been with the national team the past two years.

“Our athletes gave it their best but perhaps they could have done better had their Portugal training stint pushed through,” said Tom Carrasco Jr., president of both the Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) and the SEATA.

Singapore’s Emma Ada Middleditch adapted well to the change from triathlon to a duathlon event due to the inclement weather, forcing organizers to scrap the swim leg.

“I just stayed with the lead pack in the first run leg and in the bike leg then I took the lead in the final 5K run. I was really hoping I would qualify for the YOG, “ said Middleditch, who clocked 1:01.44 in the 2.5K run-20K bike-5K run race that drew entries from 17 countries.

Korean Jung Won Lee came in second in 1:02.34 while China’s Xinying Yu and Meiji Lu took third and fourth places in 1:02.52 and 1:04.33, respectively. Japanese bet Maki Uchida placed fifth in 1:04.55.

However, with the ruling that only the top five countries will be represented in the YOG, Hong Kong’s Hie Yee Chan took the last slot for the Buenos Aires Games as she outsprinted Filipina Karen Manayon in the last 100 meters of the final run leg of the event backed by SBMA and the Philippine Sports Commission and sanctioned by the Asian Triathlon Confederation (ASTC). Manayon finished only six seconds behind Chan, who clocked 1:05.32.

In the boys’ side, Japan had three finishers in the Top Seven with Teppei Tokuyama emerging champion in 54:29 followed by Kanta Ando (54:37), China’s Junjie Fan (55:31), Hong Kong’s Hung Tiklong (55:42) while another Japanese Yuya Otani placed sixth in 55:57 followed by Syrian Zakaria Alkarrat (56:18), the fifth qualifier to the YOG.