Lanao del Norte bet Satar Salem wins 2023 Ironman 70.3 Puerto Princesa. –HANDOUT PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Satar Salem captured the men’s overall individual crown via the slimmest of margins while Leyann Ramo completed Tri SND Barracuda’s domination and ruled the women’s side in the Ironman 70.3 in Puerto Princesa last Sunday.
Salem crossed the finish line with a time of 04:22:25, edging Chinese bet Junyu Cao who came in at 04:23:13 as he held off his competitors with a strong run in one of the closest results in Ironman Philippines staging.
Salem, who hails from Lanao del Norte, clocked 29:08 in the swim part, 02:22:31 in the bike before winding up with 01:26:40 in run for an overall time of 04:22:25. He bested last year’s winner John Alcala’s clocking of 04:32:20 in the grueling 1.9km swim, 90km bike, and 21.1km run race held under overcast skies.
Cao timed 30:04 in swim, gained on Salem in the bike portion in 02:21:40 but came up short in the closing leg with a 01:26:39 clocking, while Dutch Eric van der Linden settled for third in 04:24:41 with leg times of 28:52 (swim), 02:22:30 (bike) and 01:28:48 (run).
“I feel very happy to win this race. I’ve been eyeing this for the whole year and now it has come true. With all the hard training, it finally bore fruit,” said Salem, who struggled to finish 17th last year.
“I made sure I didn’t make the same mistakes that I did last year. Now, I made sure to reserve some strength to push for the run part.”
Leyann Ramo dominates the women’s Ironman Puerto Princesa 70.3 race. –HANDOUT PHOTO
Meanwhile, Ramo dominated the women’s race in 05:02:56 with leg clocking of 29:39 (swim), 02:41:18 (bike) and 01:47:44 (run).
Second placer Grace Banzon came way behind Ramo with a time of 05:29:23 while American Catherine Wood placed third in 05:36:26.
Tri SND Barracuda domination
Tri SND Barracuda cops top triathlon group honors.
Both Salem and Ramo race for Tri SND Barracuda, which secured the prestigious Asia TriClub and Relay Championship crown with the Ironman 70.3 Puerto Princesa as first time out.
Under the Ironman 70.3 points system for the Asia TriClub series, the fastest athlete to finish in a category in the race receives 3,500 points with every minute behind the first finisher diminishing their points by 18 per minute.
Drawing from the strength of the results from men’s winner Salem and last year’s champion Alcala along with, Kenneth Bonda, Jailani Lamama and Mohammad Maruhom, Tri SND Barracuda gained recognition as the country’s top triathlon squad.
With 28 individual participants and six relay teams, Tri SND Barracuda posted three first-place feats, three second-place efforts and another three third-place finishes.