Ageless Unabia thwarts Sotto anew

Monday, October 17, 2011

FOR a 33-year-old father not blessed with height and a pair of long legs, the road awaiting him in the national finals of the 35th Milo Marathon may have been riddled with unbearable challenge.

But for a courageous runner that he is, at least the grizzled Arnold Unabia of Tangub City was able to prove once again that he's still "King of the Road" in Cagayan de Oro leg of the annual race.

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On Sunday, the 5-foot-3 Unabia outsprinted the same closest pursuer last year from Iligan, Jeffrey Sotto, by mere 9 seconds to keep the 21K men's title of the Milo run elimination here that also saw the region's top two bets holding ground against the elite rivals from Manila.

In the distaff side, Pagadian pride Cresabel Cadion convincingly won the 21K women's crown, leaving behind closest rival Roxanne Maaba of Tangub by over 3 minutes difference, 1:34:48 to 1:38:08.

A Business Administration student of Columbian College in Pagadian, Cadion will join Unabia and the three other male qualifiers to the December 11 National Finals, which will award P300,000 each to the top male and female finishers.

Unabia and the much younger and taller Sotto broke loose from the main pack in the last 3 kilometers of the out-and-back race that started at downtown's Velez street, headed to Opol's "tabing ilog" as turning point and going back to the main street where it ended inside the track oval of Don Gregorio Pelaez Sports Center.

Like a sequel from last year's neck-to-neck battle, Unabia arrived first at 1 hour, 14 minutes and 2 seconds with the 27-year-old Sotto trailing him at 1:14:11.

Biting the dust at third and fourth places were Gerald Sabal (1:14:13) and Crifrankreadel Indapan (1:14:36) of Manila's Team Army with Jerald Zabala (1:14:58) of Ororama Super Center checking at fifth.

"At first, I was worried with the presence of Manila's heavyweights (Sabal and Indapan) `coz they are really good runners. But when Jeffrey and I reduced the field in the last three kilometers, I figured out that I only had to use my speed advantage to win again. From 50 meters, I even padded my lead to 80 meters to control the race in the homestretch, though it was much closer than last year when we also made a 1-2 finish," Unabia told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in vernacular.

He acknowledged that familiarity of the flat Cagayan de Oro course had greatly contributed to his successful defense of the throne.

Unabia, however, appeared more realistic when he admitted that the road to victory in the finals is quite thorny as can be gleaned by his 13th-place performance last year in the face of much taller opposition with obviously bigger steps than him.

"It's really hard to compete with taller, stronger and talented guys in the finals. But my goal now is to make it to the top 10. It's becoming more difficult now for Filipinos to win the competition as a number of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners have also qualified. In fact, the Kenyans just ruled the Bohol leg, but I'm praying it’s gonna be us to be on top than our foreign rivals," said Unabia.

As running coach of Tangub City Government, Sunday morning's marathon in the City of Golden Friendship was more than a double whammy for the veteran Unabia, as his wards also lorded it over in the 10K, 5K and 3K events.

"Our Tangub LGU has good race program and we work it out all-year round. We've been rewarded for our serious effort to be the best and it's a great blessing from above," Unabia further told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.

Both Unabia and Cadion received each the champion's purse of P10,000 plus trophy.

Completing the 21K men's top-10 finishers were Jamaloding Oti (1:16:27), Rodil Quilab (1:17:56), Bryan Quiamco (1:20:29), Oscar Openh (1:24:45) and Gil Norman Ebardo (1:25:23).

Rounding up the 21K women's top 10 winners were Stephanie Pumatong, Lezette Aibarote, Gina Factura, Candy Lu, Mary Anne Ang, Bess Kristine Daapong, Maryclairfel Paner and Rosalie Mancawan.

Milo Sports Executives Pat Goc-ong and Andrew Neri expressed elation over the marathon's turnout of 8,974 entries that took part in the different race categories, including the 10K which was won by Glenn Arellano (33:55) and distaff counterpart Sheena Maxicom (45:16).

"We encountered minor glitches like injuries to a few but overall the race went well with the help of local organizers Jeffrey Ang and Francis Velasquez of Cirlce Productions. We've been receiving positive feedbacks from the runners themselves," Neri said.

Milo Sports coordinator for Northern Mindanao John Montalvan added that the Cagayan de Oro Marathon participants were able to raise a total of 500 pairs of shoes for students of South City Central School, Tablon Elementary School, Cagayan de Oro National High School, Alae National High School and Agusan Elementary School, as part of its "Help Give Shoes" advocacy.

"A lot of kids even children in public schools don't have shoes. This Milo sports advocacy will mean a lot to them," added Montalvan.

Up next are the remaining provincial races in Butuan (Oct. 23), General Santos (Oct. 30) and Davao City (Nov. 6) before culminating with the pre-christmas National Finals in Manila at the SM Mall of Asia.