CEBUANO Prince Joey Lee stood at the top of the podium as the fastest Filipino half-marathoner in all three legs of the 7-Eleven Run Series Sunday held simultaneously in Manila, Cebu and Davao.
Lee, the pride of Spectrum Runners Club, topped the Cebu Leg after crossing the finish line at the Cebu Business Park in 1 hour, 11 minutes and 7 seconds. He received more good news when it was announced at the awarding ceremony that his time was the fastest in all three legs.
As a reward, 7-Eleven will be sending Lee anew to an international race along with the other overall Top 3 runners.
Lee was previously sent by the same race to Jeju, South Korea before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The runners-up in the Cebu Leg were Jeson Agravante with a time of 1:19:49 and Andy Toniacao clocking ni 1:21:13.
On the other hand, Ruffa Sorongon breasted the tape in 1:28:20 to win the women’s 21K and place second in the overall ranking, earning a spot for an international race.
Cherry Andrin (1:33:56) and Jennylyn Nobleza (1:37:28) were the runners-up to Sorongon for Cebu Leg. However, they did not make the cut for the overall ranking.
In the marathon, Kenyan Joseph Mururi (2:41:55) won the men’s division while visiting runner from Bacolod City Stephanie Cadosale (3:34:44) conquered the women’s side.
Kenyan Eric Chipsiror 1:54:44 won the men’s 32K distance, Jerome Casinillo (1:58:01) placed second and Maclin Sadia (2:01:12) was third.
Lizane Abella (2:43:23) topped the distaff side followed by Lucita Fernandez (2:59:07) and Riza Bausin (3:00:31).
The race also had short distance categories in 10K, 5K and 3K.
Bong Gayanilo, regional manager for the Visayas, said that the Cebu Leg had 7,900 participants. The nationwide participants reached to about 40,000 runners.
“This is a bounce-back year as we call it revenge run. My assessment is better performing compared to the 2019 run. Participants were excited about the race and that resulted in a high number of participants,” he said.
The race returned to its normal setup after being moved to a virtual run for the past two years due to the Covid-19 restrictions.