INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines--David Verlee showed his mastery of the sprint course to rule the 2nd Anvaya Cove Invitational Triathlon for the second straight year at the Beach and Nature Club in Bataan over the weekend.

Verlee, a Canadian based in Subic, pulled ahead in the hilly stretch of the 30K bike leg to bag the men?s elite crown with a time of one hour, 50 minutes and 42 seconds.

?It was a good race and I had fun,? said Verlee. ?I?m happy to defend the title and it was in the bike leg where I caught up with a lot of competitors and stayed in the lead the whole time.?

Andrea Preciosa Lagman dominated the women?s elite division of the 1K swim-30K bike-6K run sprint race in 2:48:42.

Verlee finished exactly a minute ahead of 18-year-old Nikko Bryan Huelgas, a surprise podium finisher despite shifting from aquathlon to triathlon only five months ago.

?I lost wind because this is my first race in this distance,? said Huelgas, who clocked 1:51:42.

The 47-year-old Anthony Welsh finished third in the men?s race in 2:02:46.

Verlee, a veteran triathlete, only took the lead after the first of the three-loop bike leg as Huelgas moved ahead early in the race.

Huelgas, a La Salle varsity player for both swimming and athletics, registered a two-minute lead over Verlee in the swim event before pedaling ahead by as many as 150 meters in the bike race.

Huelgas earned an invitation from Triathlon Association of the Philippines Tom Carrasco Jr. to join the national developmental pool.

Arlene Buenviaje Juliano finished second behind Lagman (3:05:52), while Maria Cecilia Pangilinan wound up third (3:26:57).