CHAMPION rider Ariana Dormitorio hopes to score a twin kill in the second half of the year.
The charming 22-year-old is seeking to earn an outright berth to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when she competes in the Asian Mountain Bike Continental Championships in Lebanon, before she caps 2019 by going for the gold in her first ever stint in the Southeast Asian Games to be held in the country.
“This will be a very crucial year because all of the things that we’ve really worked hard for, this is it, the final stretch to get there. We’re really looking forward to the Olympic qualifying, and especially the SEA Games because it’s going to be the first in my whole career,” said Dormitorio, who made her first ever appearance in the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum on Tuesday at the Amelie Hotel-Manila.
First in her bucket list is the Olympic qualifier in Lebanon from July 25 to 28 where winning the gold medal will earn her a slot as the first Filipina cyclist to compete in the Summer Games.
Dormitorio will be up against the same riders from the continent whom she faced during the Asian Games last year in Indonesia. The Filipina was favored to win the gold in mountain bike, but suffered a crash in the second lap of the five-lap race to bow out of contention.
The three-time former Asian Mountain Bike Series champion knows it won’t be easy, but actually likes her chances based on the way she raced in the Asian Games against top riders from China, Japan, Iran and Kazakhstan.
“I was able to compete against those top athletes, and to be honest, I was surprised with how my race went before I crashed,” she said in the session presented by San Miguel Corp., Braska Restaurant, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
Dormitorio will be competing in a UCI-sanctioned meet in Japan next month as part of her preparation for the Lebanon race.
And then there are the SEA Games.
“My goal in the SEA Games is to win the gold, and I’m happy that somehow, I am regularly competing against those riders from Southeast Asia, so more or less, I am already very familiar with them,” she said.
Dormitorio, who trained in the UCI Training Center in Switzerland recently, mentioned Thailand as her biggest rival in the mountain bike event to be held in Tagaytay City.
Mountain bike will be the first event to be held in the SEA Games set from November 30 to December 11.
Image credits: Roy Domingo