By CARLO ANOLIN
CEBU – Olongapo junior triathletes dominated the IRONKIDS yesterday as Darell Bada and Adrian Ungos triumphed in the 13-14 boys and girls categories, respectively here.
Bada, who finished the mix 400m swim, 12km bike, and 3km run course in 33:22, trailed at third in the swim leg and finished exactly five minutes before letting off some steam in the bike (18:40) and run (9:42) courses, making him the fastest on the pedal and on foot.
The bike course saw a close race from some of the contenders but Bada and eventual first runner-up Carron Canas, who registered 34:08, went toe-to-toe as the latter clocked 18:44 but was left behind in running with 10:29. Connor Hodges placed second runner-up with 35:13
Ungos, for her part, recovered from her early slump and bounced back from fifth in swimming (6:30) and zoomed in with her bike en route to becoming the female 13-14 champion with a total of 38:23.
She finished the bike course first with 19:32 and took over Eleora Avanzado, who finished first runner-up with a total of 39:15 and the category’s fastest swimmer with 5:51.
Avanzado yielded the lead and finished with a 21:34 time on the bike. Despite topping the run course with 11:50, she still fell short against Ungos, who clocked 12:21. Maria Raagas followed suit for a second runner-up finish with 40:15.
Christy Ann Perez and Yvaine Osias, meanwhile, provided a thriller of a duel in girls’ 11-12 with the former edging the latter by mere eight seconds in stark contrast to the title chase in the boys’ side which Peter del Rosario ruled in wire-to-wire fashion.
Perez trailed Osias by two seconds in swim (03:03-03:01), seized a slight edge in bike (16:24-16:27) before holding sway in the closing run (09:39-09:46) for a total clocking of 29:06.0 over the 400m swim, 6km bike and 2km run distance.
Osias finished with 29:14.0 while Fritzie Surima placed third in 30:26.0 (03:19, 16:59, 10:08).
Other winners were Lauren Lee Tan (27:59.0) and Joshua Marquez (35:14.0) in 9-10 category (200m swim, 6km bike and 1.5km run), while Mitch Salva (17:57.0) and Cael Avanzado (16:05.0) topped the beginners (6-8) division (100m, 2km bike and 1km run) of the event which served as an appetizer to the Megaworld IRONMAN 70.3 set to fire off today (Sunday).
GO4LESS, meanwhile, topped the relay (11-14) with a total clocking of 23:08 as it bested TRI-ZJA (23:48) and TLTG Go for Gold Cebu (24:01), while Coco Running TriTeam 1 ruled the 6-10 division in 15:00 with ASFFPI 1 and Coco Running Tri Team 2 placing second and third in 16:14 and 16:37, respectively.
