Australia-based Dutch Thomas Bruins lived up to hype Sunday as he dominated the Classic event of the 2017 Powerman Philippines Asian Championships with plenty to spare at Clark Freeport Zone.
Despite dropping his hydration bottle after hitting a speed bump in the first run-to-bike transition, the 28-year-old Bruins clocked two hours, 57 minutes and 28 seconds in the 10-kilometer run-60K bike-10K run event and crossed the finished line way ahead of his rivals.
Runner-up Matt Smith of Australia was more than nine minutes behind in 3:07:46 while Filipino Emmanuel Comendador, who failed to finish last year, wound up third in 3:09:20.
Their 1-2-3 finish mirrored the result of the Powerman Asia Duathlon Championships-Malaysia last March.
Bruins also topped the Thailand leg in January and the Indonesia edition in February.
Filipinos John Leerams Chicano, triathlon silver medalist in the recent Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games, and Raymund Torio took fourth and fifth in 3:10:46 and 3:13:27, respectively.
“I got on the bike in the transition and I lost my drink bottle so I got to do the bike without as many carbs as I wanted to,” said Bruins, whose parents emigrated to Australia when he was seven.
Bruins placed third in Bataan in 2015 when the event was first held here and moved up to second last year, also in Clark, behind Gael Le Bellec of France in the event presented by Summit Water.
Filipino Miscelle Gilbuena clocked 3:39:34 to top the women’s side at the expense of Aussie Alexandra McDougall (3:40:44).
Japanese Aira Sawada finished in 1:35:19 to rule the women’s Powerman Short category (5K run-30K bike-5K run), beating Filipino Bid Ferreira who submitted 2:10:19.
Another local bet, Jarwyn Banatao, timed 1:24:01 to thwart Malaysian Jason Loh (1:25:56) for the short elite title. —ROY LUARCA