Allen keeps Xterra PH crown

LILOAN, Cebu—Australian Ben Allen and Scotland’s Lesley Paterson emerged victorious in their respective divisions in the  third Vaseline Men Xterra Off-Road Triathlon Series here recently.

Allen clocked two hours, 37 minutes and 40 seconds to keep his title in the premier triathlon event which consisted of 1.5K swimming, 35K of mountain biking and 10K of trail running.

“I suppose I have a target on my back to defend,”  Allen said, who came out of the waters first with a time of 16:53 and was never headed. “It’s just an amazing  feeling to be able to walk away as Xterra Philippines champion for another year.”

South African Dan Hugo, who dropped to his knees from exhaustion after crossing the finish line, was second in 2:38:31.  According to his Twitter account, he suffered two flat tires and a crash.

Great Britain’s Sam Gardner registered 2:48:19 for  third spot, nosing out Bradley Weiss who finished 27 ticks behind.

In the women’s division, Paterson finished first in 2:45:41, which was the  third fastest overall.

Last year’s champion Swiss Renata Bucher clocked 3:00:03 for second while British Daz Parker timed 3:17:03 for third.

“The race was tough. I could only think it was tougher for everybody else,” said Paterson, who’s also a two-time Xterra World champion.

The podium finishers received $2,200, $1,700 and $1,200.

In the men’s Filipino Elite category, Joseph Miller was fastest in 3:05:51 and pocketed P30,000.  Alexandra Ganzon (4:15:03) topped the distaff side.

Jezam Baldomar (1:41:32) and Caroline Iris Armogenia (3:11:19) ruled the Xterra Lite (500m swim-20K bike-5K trail run).