Adorna faces junior champ

SOUTHEAST Asian games champion Claire Adorna banners the Philippine squad going up against world-ranked triathletes in the two-day NTT ASTC Subic Bay International Triathlon 2016 starting April 16 at ACEA Subic Bay.

Adorna and teammate Kim Kilgroe brace for a tough grind in the 1.5K swim-40K bike-10K run women’s elite, where former junior world champion Felicity Abram of Australia leads the favorites.

Abram, who once topped the International Triathlon Union rankings, also looks to earn ITU qualifying points for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics along with compatriot Melinda Vernon, Shuwen Chang (Singapore), Chi Wen Chang and Ting-Ting Chang (Taiwan), Irene See Win Chiong (Malaysia) and Kate Rutherford (Hong Kong).

National triathletes John Chicano, Mark Hosana, Jonard Saim and Deo Timbol also expect a huge challenge from the men’s elite cast of James Thorp and Joel Tobin White (Australia), Mohamad Alsabbagh (Syria), James Chronis (Greece), Shen-Yen Hsieh (Taiwan), Rikigoro Shinozuka (Malaysia), Jiayu Tan (Singapore), Chun Yin Tse (HK) and Yuki Umeda (Japan). Jasmine W. Payo