PHOTO CAPTION: COMMISSAIRES flag off participants in the individual time trial races on Tuesday in Batangas.

ALLAEZA Mae Gulmatiico and Maria Louisse Crisselle Alejado won their respective individual time trial (ITT) races in contrasting fashions to make Iloilo proud anew on the second day Tuesday of the PhilCycling National Championships for Road presented by the MVP Sports Foundation and Standard Insurance.

Gulmatico clocked 14 minutes and 45.90 seconds in ruling the Women’s Youth 1 ITT for riders aged 12 to 14 years old in the 5.38-km course in Nasugbu and Batulao in Batangas of the championships organized by the PhilCycling headed by Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.

It was a very close win for Gulmatico in the event that was raced under a cold drizzle and strong crosswind with Ysabel Nicole Jamero finishing second by a mere 38-hundredth of a second and Joanna Mae Armendez winding up a far third almost 50 seconds behind.

Alejado, on the other hand, crossed in 22:46.51 to dominate the Youth 2 race over 8.60 kms for 12 to 14 years old of the event by 24 seconds over silver medalist Yvaine Osias and bronze winner Althea Coronado by more than three minutes.

Gulmatico and Alejado won the first two gold medals staked in Criterium on Monday at the Tagaytay City Atrium of the championships also backed by the POC, Tagaytay City and Excellent Noodles, as well as the Philippine Sports Commission, which supports the national teams of cycling.

Jaime Yuendhale Chavez covered the Men Youth 2 event also covering 8.60 kms in 22:50.93 to win the gold medal over Silmar Khen Silao and John Granad who crossed the finish line in Barangay Kaylaway in Batulao more than four minutes behind.

Criterium champion Jazmine Kaye Vinoya missed a second gold medal after settling for silver in the 10-68-km Women Junior ITT by five seconds behind gold winner Mary Gwennielle Francisco (30:51.86) with Eloiza Pajarito (31:07.66) bagging bronze.

John Ace Villasenor (29:21.31) topped the Men Junior ITT also over 10.68 kms with Emmanuel Vicente (29:26.91) and Ely Ignacio III (29:30.26).

MORE than 500 cyclists will vie in the PhilCycling National Championships for Road that flag off with the Criterium races on Monday (February 24) in Tagaytay City.

The races that will determine the composition of the national road team for this year feature the Men and Women Elite, Under-23, Junior and Youth categories in Criterium, Individual Time Trial (ITT) and Road races.

The championships are presented by the MVP Sports Foundation and Standard Insurance and organized by the PhilCycling headed by Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, also the president of the Philippine Olympic Committee.

There are 111 riders in the Men Elite, 133 in Under-23, 116 in Junior and a combined 97 in Youth 1 and 2 in the championships also backed by Tagaytay City and Excellent Noodles as well as the Philippine Sports Commission, which supports the national teams of cycling.

The roster for the women’s races will be finalized on Sunday morning during the team managers, coaches and riders meetings at the Sigtuna Hall inside the Tagaytay City Atrium.

The Criterium races will be on a 2.1-km circuit on Isaac Tolentino Avenue and Acle, Mahogany and Crisanto Tolentino streets with the start-finish set at the Praying Hands monument.

On Tuesday, the championships will proceed to Nasugbu and Tuy in Batangas for the Individual Time Trial races with the Road events set from Tuesday to Friday over a 44-km circuit with the start-finish area set in Barangay Putol in Tuy and the route over the national highway in Nasugbu, Balayan and Lian.

The championships are also supported by Mayors Jose Jecerell Cerrado (Tuy), Emmanuel Salvador Fronda II (Balayan), Antonio Jose Barcelon (Nasugbu) and Joseph Peji (Lian).

BMX Racing’s a team effort for bronze medalist Patrick Coo (right) and Daniel Caluag.

HANGZHOU — Patrick Coo clinched bronze on Sunday in Chun’an to continue the Philippines medal tradition in BMX racing of cycling in the Asian Games.

Coo’s bronze was the seventh for Team Philippines and it came the morning after Ernest John ‘EJ” Obiena won an expected gold medal in men’s pole vault.

“I’m very happy but hurting for sure,” said the 21-year-old Coo, who scraped the upper part of his right thigh after crashing in the first moto of the 12-cyclist final. “I ripped my pants in the process and got it fixed immediately.”

Japan’s Asuma Nakai, 23, and junior bronze medalist in the UCI world championships last year in Nantes (France) won gold, followed very closely by Southeast Asian Games champion Komet Sukpraset of Thailand and Coo.

With Coo’s bronze, the Philippines had a medal in each of the last three Asian Games—Danny Caluag won the country’s one and only gold medal in Incheon in 2014 and got bronze in Indonesia five years ago.

Caluag, 36, was in the thick of the race but was shoved to sixth place in the final—he raced still recovering from a broken rib he sustained in training in the US.

Coo, an Olympic Solidarity scholar, felt amazing about his stint in Hangzhou.
“I feel very happy, I went straight to the biggest one, the Asian Games,” said Coo as he thanked Philippine Olympic Committee president Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, who heads PhilCycling.

“This could kick off more major accomplishments for Patrick,” Tolentino said. “He’s only 21, so young, and he’s been training seriously and diligently the past year or so under the Olympic Solidarity program.”

Tolentino said cycling has again confirmed its consistency in contributing to a medal in the Asian Games.

“It’s a motivation for PhilCycling to achieve more in the international arena,” he said.

Coo flew in four days ago from Aigle, Switzerland, straight from his UCI World Cycling Center training camp. He had to spend a night in Hangzhou—some 150 km from Chun’an where the cycling competitions are staged—because he was directed to the main Athletes Village instead of a bus to the cycling venue.

His crash in the first moto on Sunday wasn’t anything unique in Coo. He almost always does, but he’s been trying to correct his mistakes.

“I’m fast and everything, but I get so much adrenalin most of the time. I need to take it step by step, by staying calm more on the bike,” he said.

Coo called his parents in the US—Benjamin who’s from Iloilo and Romilyn Lag from Cagayan de Oro minutes after the race.

“They told me to pamper myself when I get back to the Philippines,” said Coo, who stays in Tagaytay City which has the country’s only UCI BMX race track.

“I haven’t eaten rice for the past three months while I was in Switzerland, so time to gorge in Tagaytay,” he said, adding “and a lot of isaw.”

(ai/mnm)