Oscar Coggins of Hong Kong and Mengying Zhong of China topped the elite field in the 2019 NTT ASTC Subic Bay International Triathlon yesterday.
Coggins clocked 1:49.20 to win the men’s event, ahead of five Japanese entries, including reigning Asian Games champion and top seed Jumpei Furuya who settled for second place with 1:50.11. Yuichi Hosoda was third in 1:50.36.
Andrew Remolino, the 19-year-old Cebuano, was the best-placed Filipino at 17th place with a time of 1:54.
“Hopeful ako na ma-select ako sa national team,” said Remolino.
In the distaff side, Zhong defended her crown with a time of 2:04.17 followed by Japanese Aoi Kuranoto in 2:04.41 and Yurie Kato in 2:05.32.
Kim Kilgroe was the country’s top finisher in 12th place (2:10.10) ahead of Southeast Asian Games winner Claire Adorna who ended in 15th spot (2:13.01).
The race was supported by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Standard Insurance, Asian Centre for Insulation Philippines (ACIP), NTT, ACEA Beach Resort & Hotel and Pocari Sweat.
“This was definitely a strong field with several world-ranked participants . For the national team, we will have our final qualifying race in Korea in June where we will bring our national training pool for a camp and race in the Asian Cup, then we will announce the final selection for the SEA Games, a minimum of 3 , maximum of 5 triathletes,” said Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) president Tom Carrasco Jr.
