CEBU, Philippines - Promising Cebuano triathlete Justin Lian Chiongbian bolstered his bid to earn berth for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games after bagging gold in the Cold Storage Singapore International Triathlon the other day.
Chiongbian, a national junior triathlete, actually had a slow start as he completed the 200-meter swim course only at seventh place out of 40 entries under the 13-15 age group.
The Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu varsity, however, slowly caught up with the early leaders by finishing third in the 10-kilometer bike course.
Chiongbian then unleashed his running prowess to take the lead halfway in the two-kilometer run. He never looked back from there on the way to crossing the finish line with the fastest time of 25 minutes and 50 seconds, enough to improve his bronze-medal performance last year.
Chiongbian also surpassed the winning time of 28:05 recorded by 2012 gold medal winner Muhammad Tareef Zakar of Malaysia.
In the distaff side, Vicky Deldeo ended her bid with a silver. Malaysian Zoe Natasha Bowden won the gold.
Chiongbian and Deldeo, who were accompanied by their parents and national junior coach Anthony Lozada, joined the event to gauge their level of competitiveness for the ITU Hong Kong International Triathlon slated on October 26-27.
Chiongbian and Deldeo as well as Jimuel Patilan and Magali Echauz are the top bets of the Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) for the YOG Triathlon Continental qualifying race scheduled in June next year in Kazakhstan.
“Chiongbian and Deldeo showed they deserve to be part of our YOG aspirants. Their performance is also a good confidence builder in time for next year’s continental qualifying race,†said Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) chairman and TRAP president Tom Carrasco, Jr.— (FREEMAN)