13 countries entered in Subic Triathlon

A LARGE foreign contingent will invade the country when the 11th Subic International Triathlon takes place on May 8 inside the Subic Bay Freeport as triathletes from 13 countries, including host Philippines, have already confirmed their participation.


The only locally held race that is sanctioned by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) as point-earning ITU international event, the organizing Triathlon Association of the Philippines has already received confirmed world-ranked entries from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hongkong, Austria, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Iran, Singapore, Thailand.

It is also sanctioned by the Asian Triathlon Confederation, which together with ITU is launching a developmental program that aims to increase the number of Asian triathletes in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

Last year, TRAP hosted the highly-successful Asian Triathlon Championship in lieu of the Subic International Triathlon, but even as Asian Champion Dmitry Gaag from Kazakhstan will not be around, the field remains to be very competitive in this year’s staging of the SUBIT, according to TRAP president Tom Carrasco.

"Other countries are very impressed with event organizational skills, in 1997, when we also hosted the Asian championships in Subic, the event was hailed as one of the best-organized regional championship. This is the reason why we are successful in attracting foreign athletes, said Carrasco of the event that has SPEEDO Powerbar, Smart Addict Mobile Pre-paid, David’s Salon and Skin n Face Spa, Stronghold Insurance, Reliv, Asian Center for Insulation, GlaxoSmithKline, Legenda Hotel Subic, the PSC, POC Sports for All Commission, and hosted by the SBMA.

The event is expected to attract over 200 entries who will be competing in the Olympic distance 1.5 K swine – 40K bike – 10K run event for the Open Elite, Under 23 Elite, and age groupers, together with the participants in the sprint distance, 750m.swim – 20K bike – 5K run for 19 & under junior triathletes.

There will be cash prizes for the top finishers in the Elite Open, Elite Under 23, and Junior Sprint together with gift certificates and products from SPEEDO and David’s Salon, the latter to provide free massage service to all finishers right after the race at the finish line area, while everyone who completes the race gets SPEEDO finisher’s tshirts