TAGAYTAY City—The Chinese juggernaut continued its dominance in the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC) Track and Para Track Championships but it was young Maritanya Krog who captured the hearts of everyone at the Tagaytay CT Velodrome.

Krog, 17, is entirely a neophyte on a velodrome like everyone else on the national team, but provided a glimpse of how Philippine track cycling’s future would be—she finished fourth in the women junior elimination race on Friday, March 27—a tad so short of the podium.

“It’s a great honor and achievement for me to be in the top four, not only because it’s my first time , but also because we had very little preparation for the championships,” said Krog, a successful junior road rider with numerous gold medals at the PhilCycling Nationals and Batang Pinoy program.

“I’m very thankful to everyone who supports me–especially my mother, my siblings and my coaches,” added Krog, daughter of former road and track national rider and now national team coach Marita Lucas. “ I’m also grateful to PhilCycling, PSC and the POC.”

Krog got the boot from Indonesia’s Alegya Keiko Hendranaya in the women junior elimination race dominated by China’s Ding Aonan with South Korea’s Lee Yun Ji getting silver.

“I was very nervous during the race because I knew I could be eliminated anytime,” Krog said. “But I kept pushing myself to stay close to the front and gave it my best.”

That was the closest to the podium finish so far by any of the 30 national track and para track athletes entered by the PhilCycling, headed by Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, in the championships hosted by Tagaytay City and Mayor Brent Tolentino and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, MVP Sports Foundation, Sports Plus PH, Toyota and Peak.

Wu Junjie and Ning Chen stamped their class in the elite omnium events for China, which widened its gap in the medals race with 10 golds and five silvers—seven more golds than South Korea (3-4-3 gold-silver-bronze) and eight more than Chinese-Taipei (2-2-3).

Kazakhstan (2-0-0) and Japan (1-4-7) rounded out the top five in the medal tally with only track powerhouse Malaysia breaking into the gold medal column with one complimented with two silvers and one bronze.

Junjie amassed 141 points to outclass Chinese Taipei’s Li Jing Feng (125 points)and Japan’s Tetsuo Yamamoto (125 points).

“We just need to stay focused on the competition and give our best,” Junjie said.

Chen, meanwhile, tallied 144 points for the gold, followed by Hong Kong’s Sze Wing Lee (126) and South Korea’s Jieun Shin (124).

Malaysia (4-3-1) and Uzbekistan (4-1-2) were 1-2 in the medals race in para cycling, followed by Japan (2-0-0), South Korea (1-1-0) and Indonesia (1-1-0).

Kazakhstan shone in the women’s junior Madison behind Aruzhan Kabdulova and Anel Tashbay (105 points), while Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Makarochkina and Nadejd Barteneva finished second with 64 points and Chinese Taipei’s Ting Wen Chen and Tse Ning Chen wound up third.