Chicano reigns in shortened Unilab Tri-United series
John Chicano kept overall defending champion August Benedicto winless in the 2015 Unilab Active Health (ULAH) TriUnited series as he topped yesterday’s TRI-United 2 male elite on a shortened race course at Playa Laiya in San Juan, Batangas.
The 23-year old Chicano, a member of the national team and also part of the ULAH sponsored triathletes, rode the pace set by Benedicto in the 90K bike leg before turning the heat in the first of three loop 15K run leg to win the elite male with a time of 2 hours, 29 minutes, 36 seconds.
Benedicto, also a member of the ULAH team, was second in in 2:33:46 while another ULAH triathlete, Benjamin Rana, took third at 2:35:45 in the event organized by Bike King headed by Raul Cuevas and presented by Unilab Active Health.
The race was originally set at a long distance of 2K swim, 60K bike and 15K run but the organizer had to forego the swim leg due to strong and big waves at the Playa Laiya Beach front. The sprint distance earlier set at 750M swim, 20K bike and 5K run was also reduced to a bike-and-run event.
“We put premium on the participants’ welfare that is why we decided to cancel the swim leg,” said Cuevas on the decision that gained the nod of the close to 800 triathletes that took part in the race also supported by ULAH, Landco, Enervon Activ, Hydrite, Enervon HP, ORBEA, Pocari Sweat, Saucony, Timex, Playa Laiya, WeatherPhilippines, SwimBikeRun.ph, Multisport
Magazine, RaceDay Magazine and SPIN.ph. Age group winners were Mervin Santiago (18-24), Robinson Esteves (25-29), Angelo Gonzalo (30-34), Jeff Valdez (35-39), Edward Luna (40-44), Mark Ellis (45-49), Frank Lacson (50-54) and Killy Kunimoto (55-above) in the male and Keshia Fule (25-29), Chloe Ong (30-34), Ceri in the long distance class, Sam Ranque (16-17), Marc Alexander (18-29), Charles Or (30-39), Ariel Arriola (40-49), Romero Ramos Jr. (50-above), Vicky Deldio (16-17), Zoe Arianne Banzon (18-29), Lourdes Angela Ramos (30-39) and Stephanie Frondoso (40-above) in the sprint category.