Photo By Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
For the past three years, triathlete Tim Reed has made Cebu City his personal playground.
In between those three victories, he also won the Ironman 70.3 world title.
Little wonder that the 33-year-old Australian is expected to dominate for the fourth straight year when Cebu hosts the Ironman 70.3 Philippines anew on Aug. 5.
Reed was also a past winner of Ironman Australia (2016), 70. 3 Asia Pacific in 2015-2016, 70.3 Australia in 2014 and Australian Long Course race in 2012.
“Every win is different. The similarity is I work really hard for each race,” said Reed, who clocked 3:54:07 to beat Mauricio Mendez of Mexico by more than two minutes in last year’s half-Ironman event.
The 22-year-old Mendez, inaugural winner of the Ironman 70.3 Davao last March, is also in the field, along with 12-time Ironman New Zealand champion Cameron Brown and three-time world titlist Craig Alexander.
The event will kick off with the 1.9-kilometer swim leg at the beachfront of Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa in Lapu Lapu City.
From the swim exit at the boat ramp, participants will head to the transition area at the Mactan Newton beach for the 90-km bike leg. The 21.2-km run will start and end also at Shangri-La Mactan.
The distaff side will also have a top favorite in another 33-year-old, Radka Kahlefeldt of the Czech Republic.
Kahlefeldt topped 70.3 Subic last year and the Davao edition last March, just two months after giving birth to her first child with fellow pro triathlete Brad.
The Czech, a former No. 1 in the European Triathlete Union, will be challenged by regular PH participant Dimity-Lee Duke, four-time PH champion Caroline Steffen and former Ironman Australia titlist Beth McKenzie.
Duke was runner-up in the first Philippine full Ironman in Subic last June 3.
“Everybody is excited for this particular Ironman race because of its star-studded cast,” said Wilfred Uytengsu, founder of organizer Sunrise Events Inc., which is marking its decade-long staging of triathlon events in the country.