MANILA—Despite tremendous odds, Niko Huelgas went on to grab the country’s second gold after winning the men’s triathlon yesterday in the 28th Southeast Asian Games at the East Coast Park in Singapore.
Trailing after the 1.5-km swim, Huelgas came back in the last two stages to win the gold with a time of two hours, 34 minutes and 32 seconds. Just a few steps behind was Malaysia’s Rikogoro Hinozuka, who settled for the silver in 2:05.35, while Singapore’s Rong Loo Chuan salvaged the bronze medal in 2:07.01. The other Filipino bet Jonard Saim managed sixth place in 2:10.18.
“It was spectacular, it was sweet and fulfilling,” said the 23-year-old Huelgas later after matching the gold-medal performance of Claire Adorna in the women’s triathlon a
day earlier, and capping a Philippine sweep of the event.
“I was not really expecting anything (because) at the beginning I had a bad swim. I went from T1 (swim) to T2 (bike) feeling dizzy,” he added. “That put me mentally down, and then I slipped in the first 100 meters of the bike.”
The De La Salle business management graduate noted how Saim helped him in the bike leg, saying, “Without him, this would not be possible.”
Philippine Olympic Committee Chairman Tom Carrasco, who is also president of the Triathlon of Association of the Philippines, said that the success of his athletes is the result of a two-year journey.
“We were able to identify Huelgas, Mangrobang, Adorna and Saim as our SEAG hopefuls so we sent them for intensive training overseas,” said Carrasco.
The Filipino triathletes will come home proudly with two golds and a silver courtesy of Kim angrobang, who finished second behind Adorna in the women’s competition last Saturday.
Meanwhile, Daniel Parantac won the third gold medal after winning the wushu’s men’s taijian event.
Parantac, a veteran of the Incheon Asian Games, scored 9.71 points to edge Malaysian Jack Chang Lang Loh, who garnered 9.69 for the silver medal. Indonesian Julius Kamawan took the bronze medal with 9.68.