Sam Betten flashed top form and dominated the men’s pro division, while Dimity Lee Duke charged back in the last two events to clinch the women’s title as the multititled Aussies added to their collection after ruling their respective divisions in the second Black Arrow Express 5150 in Subic Bay on Sunday.
Betten emerged with the best time of 17:45 after the opening swim leg then kept his pace in the bike (57:15) and run (37:53) stages to beat Czech Jakub Langhammer by almost four minutes and reclaim his revered spot on the 5i50 ladder.
He timed a total of one hour, 57 minutes and 22 seconds over the Olympic distance of 1.5k swim-40K bike-10K run. Langhammer timed 2:01:14 overall.
Fernando Jose Casares finished third in 2:04:35 and took the Asian Elite crown from last year’s winner John Leerams Chicano, who was fourth overall in 2:05:23.
Duke rallied in the bike and run legs to foil New Zealand’s Laura Wood in their side of the event, clocking 2:18:25 with times of 22:26 (swim), 1:04:33 (bike) and 45:58 (run).