FIFTY-SEVEN young triathletes from 17 countries will vie for 10 slots to this September’s Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games (YOG) as the Subic Bay Freeport Zone hosts the First Asian Triathlon Confederation Asian YOG qualifier and the 2018 Southeast Asian Triathlon (SEATA) Sprint Championships on June 17.
Heading the Philippine campaign in the YOG qualifier are Karen Manayon, Lauren Plaza, Joshua Ramos, Juan Francisco Baniqued, Inaki Lorbes and Joshua Averion.
The other notable entries are Teppei Tokuyama (Japan), Nicholas Rachmadi (Singapore), Dongwook Kim (South Korea), Ka-eun Kim (South Korea), Tsz Ho Li (Hong Kong), Maki Uchida (Japan), Megan Hwee Wen Tan (Malaysia), Tingnui Li (China) and Ekaterina Ryazanova (Uzbekistan) to name some.
At stake in the event organized by the Triathlon Association of the Philippines and supported by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Tourism Department, Philippine Sports Commission, Standard Insurance, Gatorade and Asian Center for Insulation are five slots for youth male and five slots for youth female for the Argentina games.
The event is open only to junior elite triathletes (born in 2001 and 2002) entered by their national federations through the International Triathlon Union.
The finest athletes from the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia, meanwhile, will compete in the SEATA Sprint Championships—750-meter swim off ACEA Subic Bay, 20-kilometer cycling through PNP Camp in Corregidor Street to Petron Gas Station and 5-kilometer run along San Bernardino Street before finishing at ACEA Subic Bay.