Fer Casares and Gene Quiambao made it to the Top 20 to become the best Filipino finishers in the Asian Sprint Triathlon Championships in Sejong, South Korea over the weekend.
Casares, the reigning Southeast Asian Games champion, finished at 16th place after clocking 55 minutes and 34 seconds in the 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike, 5-km run race.
He finished three minutes behind Japanese Genta Uchida, who won the men’s elite division in 52:44.
It was actually a 1-2-3 finish for the Japanese squad with Aoba Yasumatsu and Makoto Odakura finishing second and third in 52:51 and 53:05, respectively.
Quiambao, for her part finished 18th in the women’s elite race with a time of 1:02:40 behind eventual champion Yuka Sato, who timed 59:12.
Kazakhstan’s Ekaterina Shabalina came in second in 59:20 while Japan’s Sarika Nakayama settled for third in 59:46.
Other Filipino finishers in the men’s elite were Joshua Ramos at 26th (56:34), Juan Francisco Baniqued at 35th (57:40) and Iñaki Robles at 39th (58:27).
Filipino female finishers were Erika Burgos at 25th (1:04:04) and Kira Ellis at 26th (1:05:24).
The race is just a first of many tournament exposures for the athletes as the Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) seeks to strengthen its program following a successful participation in the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam recently.
The country won three gold, one silver and one bronze medal in triathlon and duathlon events.