Salaño, Torres top Run United 1

MANILA, Philippines — Richard Salaño and Monica Torres were barely challenged in ruling the first leg of the Run United series 21K race held at Mall of Asia grounds in Pasay recently.

Salaño, the UAAP athletics Most Valuable Player from University of the East, clocked 1 hour, 16 minutes and 52 seconds to beat Benjamin Raña Jr. (1:22:09) and Andy Pope of Great Britain (1:23:33).

Torres won in 1:28:20, way ahead of Kenyan Irine Kipchumba (1:36:50) and Kristy Abello (1:47:08).

Torres said she almost missed the first-place finish after race marshals prevented her from joining the first wave of runners, who were flagged off at 4 a.m. She was eventually allowed to move up front.

At least 5,000 21K runners participated and Torres went on to take her place with most runners already on the starting line. The second wave started about three minutes behind.

“Kipchumba slowed down as early as the eighth kilometer and that’s where I started to build my lead,” said Torres.

In the 10K event participated in by about 4,000 runners, Kenyan Elphiz Kiptarus (29:36) and Cinderella Lorenzo (38:21) emerged on top.

“Our theme ‘Exceed Yourself’ is about inspiring runners to set new personal records and progress to longer distance categories,” said Unilab Active Health’s Alex Panlilio.