Mangrobang nails U-23 Elite gold

MANILA, Philippines — Kim Mangrobang got what she expected as the national standout delivered the Philippines’ lone gold in the elite competitions of the K-Swiss ITU Subic Bay International Triathlon Sunday at Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Confident of her buildup to the race, Mangrobang conquered the 1.5K swim-40K bike-10K run event with a time of two hours, 19 minutes and eight seconds to rule the female Elite Under-23 division.

“My best showing was fifth place last year, and for this year, I really expected to win because I’ve been racing since January and my conditioning was good,” said the 22-year-old Mangrobang.

Top Filipino triathlete Nikko Huelgas could have made it a victory double for the country but a costly error in the run leg allowed Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Pei-yen to pull away and bag the male Elite U-23 title with a time of 2:00:21.

Huelgas made a wrong turn in a section of the course and settled for a runner-up finish with a time of 2:00:38, while fellow national standout John Leerams Chicano checked in almost a minute later in 2:01:37 to clinch the last spot on the podium.

Aleksandr Latin of Estonia submitted the best time in the race with 1:50:16 to rule the male Elite Open, while Chika Sato timed 2:00:35 to rule the distaff side.

Jonard Saim, the lone Filipino bet in the Open race, failed to follow up on his golden run where he stunned Huelgas in a recent local event as he settled for 14th place with a 1:59:39 clocking.

“The race course was easy but very hot,” said Latin, who edged runners-up Kohei Shimomura of Japan (1:50:29) and Simon Agoston of Austria (1:50:39).

Finishing behind Sato were Hoi Long of Macau (2:03:02) and Hilda Choi Yan-yin of Hong Kong (2:07:37).

Mangrobang, who is seeing action in the Asian Games this year, produced a burst of energy in the run leg to pull away from her closest pursuers, the Taiwanese duo of Chien Wei-chen and Liu Yi-hui.

Chien trailed Mangrobang by almost two minutes (2:20:54) to grab the silver, while Liu picked up the bronze (2:21:57).

“This is sweet since this will be my last U-23 race as I plan to join the Elite Open starting next year,” Mangrobang said.