ORGANIZERS on Thursday, April 11, said that the “more friendly route” will see more survivors in tomorrow’s 3rd Mt. Apo Sky and Vertical Race set in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
Sta. Cruz senior tourism officer Julius Paner, during Davao Sportswriters Association (DSA) Forum at The Annex of SM City Davao Thursday, said, “We expect higher percentage of those who will finish the 100-kilometer race. Last 2017, we had 70 percent survivors and there were more finishers last year.”
The course, which will start from a resort in Darong, will be uphilll from 25 kilometers and beyond, all the way from Mt. Apo and back to the origin.
However, he said there are three designated exit points in Sibulan in Sta. Cruz, Tibuloy in Davao City and Kapatagan in Digos City should participants opt to quit in the middle of the race.
“Ang iba (The others), they just want to go to the peak kaya sila sumasali (that’s why they joined). Mt. Apo is very attractive, binabalik-balikan talaga,” he saiid.
Race director Doi Calbes, for his part, said they got a special permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for the one-day event since there was a temporary closure of the trail at Mt. Apo, the country’s highest peak starting April 1, 2019.
Calbes said, “We have a lot of visitors from 17 countries. The 100K race has 99 runners and 56 in the 50K category.”
Countries represented in the event supported by the Department of Tourism (DOT)-Davao and Visit Davao Summer Festival (VDSF) are Scotland, Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Mexico, Switzerland, Singapore, Russia, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Thailand, France, Indonesia, England and Philippines.
Canadian Jan Ritchie, meanwhile, Calbes invited him while joining a race in Vietnam last year. He then started training for the race since September.
“It’s my first time to climb Mt. Apo. I did activities at the gym for my heart conditioning. We don’t have mountains so I just made use of what we have there, like 1500-meter height so I just go back there four times. I just want get more experience and to get connected with the jungle, mountain and see the sunrise at 5 a.m.,” Ritchie said.
He recalled searching the internet about Mt. Apo and saw a lot of its pictures. When he arrived two days ago, he checked out the course and there saw the dominating and beautiful Mt. Apo from afar. “I was blown away,” he added.
No cash prizes are at stake. But participants, according to Paner, are really after Trail Master points.
The top male and female finishers will also be sent to the East Java race.
Paner said Mt. Apo climbers using the Sta. Cruz trail reached 3,600 last year and he attributed it to the Mt. Apo Sky and Vertical Race.