Duathlete Abad bags silver

MIRASOL Cabelenio Abad captured a silver medal and three other Philippine team bets crashed the top 10 of the Powerman Duathlon Asian Championship last weekend in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Finishing only fifth last year, Abad earned runner-up honors this time by clocking three hours, 20 minutes and 39 seconds in the Elite female category of the 11.4K run-64K bike-11.4K run race.

John Chicano, Robinson Estevez and John Valdez also made it to the top 10 of the Elite male category of the race where the PH team had hoped to boost their training for the World Games qualifier.

Radka Vodickova of Czech Republic emerged as the Elite female champion, finishing over four minutes ahead of Abad. Jacqueline Uebelhart of Switzerland completed the podium finishers.

Chicano wound up sixth with a time of 3:04:34 followed by Estevez in 3:09:48. Valdez landed ninth with a 3:22:00 clocking.

The Filipino duathletes hope to earn slots in the 2013 World Games when they compete in the Century ASTC Asian Duathlon Champions, which the Triathlon Association of the Philippines will stage this month in Subic Bay.

Racers from 19 countries have signed for the qualifiers where the top five finishers in the male and female divisions will compete in the 2013 Elite Duathlon World Championships in Colombia on July 26 and 27. Jasmine W. Payo