BMX champ Caluag braces for tough ride vs ace rivals

JAKARTA – Daniel Caluag sets out to defend the country’s lone gold medal in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, bracing for a tougher battle against a slew of aces in the men’s BMX of cycling today at the Jakarta International BMX Track.

Caluag, now 31 and a Registered Nurse in the US, has opted to train on his own rather than compete in UCI races the way he did in qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics that probably kept his rivals guessing as to his form and condition for the 18th edition of the Games here.

“It’s not a matter of watching out for my opponents. For me, it’s watching out about myself, how I will fare on race day,” said Caluag, who will race alongside younger brother Christopher John.

“I’m sure they (rivals) know me and I, too, know about them. It’s ‘whoever shows up at the gate’ that a competitor in my event has to brace for – and that includes my brother,” he added.

The men’s race consists of 12 riders – including last year’s Asian champions Jukia Yoshimura (2017) and Yoshitaku Nagasako both of Japan and last year’s Kuala Lumpur SEA Games winner Gusti Bagus Saputra of Indonesia.

The men’s seeding run is set at 9:25 a.m. (10:25 a.m. in Manila) right after the 9:05 a.m. seeding run for women where the Philippines’ Sienna Elaine Fines, only 19, competes in her first major international competition after coming out of a UCI BMX juniors program at the World Cycling Center in Aigle, Switzerland.

Fines will face two formidable opponents both from China – Zhang Yaru, the 2017-2018 Asian champion and Lu Yan, the silver medalist in Incheon.

But like Caluag, Fines feels everyone has a fighting chance for the gold in BMX racing where one spill would totally hurt a rider’s medal aspiration.