AT least 1,719 participants from 49 countries are expected to join the return of the Alveo Ironman 3.0 race in Davao City this weekend, March 25 to 26.
The participants are racing across different divisions and age categories during the Ironman weekend, including individual men and women, professional athletes, kids, and group races, and relay races.
Princess Galura, general manager of Sunrise Events - the organizing company of Alveo Ironman 70.3 Davao, said the number of participants is a big figure considering that the event is held post-Covid-19 pandemic.
The participants will also include 18 professional athletes who will race in the 1.9-kilometer swim, 90-kilometer bike, and 21-kilometer run event spanning Davao City to the province of Davao del Norte and back.
They will battle for various titles in different age-group categories and five world championship titles wherein the winner will take home a $30,000 prize.
Meanwhile, the Davao-exclusive 12-member Tribu Maisugon group race will take home P550,000 and medals designed by renowned Mindanawon artist Kublai Millan.
Galura said 12 groups have already signed up for the Tribu Maisugon race, including an all-foreigner group, all-Davao group, and all-Luzon group among others.
"May from Davao na groups very promising (There are groups from Davao that are very promising). Apat ang teams na galing sa Mindanao so pwedeng-pwede mag champion (There are four teams coming from Mindanao so any of them could be champions)," she said.
On the other hand, at least 1,516 participants will also join the IronGirls race and another 297 for the IronKids race.
Some of the prominent participants to look out for are 42-year-old two-time Ironman 70.3 world champion Michael Raelert from Germany and multi-titled Ironman 70.3 champion Portuguese-national Filipe Azevedo. (ICM)