Silvers for Plaza, Baniqued
YOUNG Filipino triathlete Lauren Plaza missed out on the gold by just a couple of seconds in the Singapore International Triathlon recently in the Lion’s City at East Coast Park.
Plaza had paced the girls’ super sprint distance competition along with teammate Jana Macalalad, before Singapore’s Emma Middleditch outsprinted them to rule with a time of 25 minutes and 32 seconds.
A promising find from Laguna, Plaza settled for silver in the 200m swim-6K bike-2K run competition with a 25:34 clocking.
Macalalad finished in 25:55, while fellow Philippine team member Nicole Eijansantos ranked fifth in 27:49.
The Philippines also settled for runner-up honors in the boys’ super sprint with Juan Baniqued posting a time of 23:34, 19 seconds behind gold medalist Russell Liew of Malaysia.
Baniqued impressively overtook three contenders in the 2K run after coming out fifth in the race’s second transition.
Joe Sarmiento, Luigi Crisostomo and Josh Averion ranked fifth to seventh. Jasmine W. Payo
