Nat’l triathletes triumph; Barreto shines

Brent Valelo of Caloocan City dethrones 2x champ Yuan Chiongbian. Batang Pinoy triathlon finals. PHOTO BY JUNE NAVARRO

DANAO CITY—Triathletes Nicole Eijansantos and Brent Valelo raced side by side throughout the course of their training.

Sharing the same coach, Eijansantos and Valelo yesterday earned the fruits of hard labor by seizing the girls’ and boys’ triathlon crown in the 2015 POC-PSC Batang Pinoy National Finals here.

“There are no secrets. We just projected the clockings by looking at the international standards and tried to achieve them,” said coach Kevin Eijansantos, Nicole’s older brother and a former national triathlete himself.

Over at the Cebu City Sports Complex, swimmer Miguel Barreto netted four more gold medals after topping the boys’ 12-under 400m freestyle on Friday.

Barreto pocketed the 200m butterfly, 50m fly, 400m individual medley titles and won the 200m medley relay with older brother Rafael.

The 14-year-old Eijansantos posted the fastest time in 45 minutes and 19 seconds.

Starting out flat in the water, Valelo was able to reverse the tide near the end of his run sequence to complete the 400-meter swim, 12-kilometer bike and 3-km run in 38:45 and upstage two-time champion Yuan Chiongbian of Cebu City for the gold medal.

John Caleb Barlin of Iloilo placed second (38:58) and Chiongbian, almost hit by an ambulance on the bike, settled for the bronze Everly Macalalad (46:23) and Una Janus Sibayan (46:34) placed second and third behind Eijansantos.