SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT, PHILIPPINES, 1 June 2003: The 1999
World Champion Dmitry Gaag and World Ranked #25 Melissa
Ashton, proved they were a class of their won when
they dominated the 10th Subic Bay International Triathlon..
While
Gaag, currently no. 8 in the world, had to wait until
the second of the four lap run before grabbing the
lead for good en route to one hour 54 minutes and
49 seconds showing, Ashton, successfully defended
her crown in an awesome wire-to-wire fashion, clocking
2:08:10.
Gaag
towed Daniil Sapunov, 2002 Asian Triathlon champion
and world's No. 108 to a 1-2 finish for the first
timer Kazakh in the 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-km bike
and 10-km run blue-ribbon event sponsored by Subic
Bay Metropolitan Authority, Philippine Sports Commission,
Speedo, ENERVON and John Hancock Insurance Co. Sapunov
crossed the tape 14 seconds adrift of Gaag.
Melissa
Ashton who had barely four hours of sleep after arriving
here from Sydney on the eve of the race checked in
a hefty four minutes and 17 seconds ahead of Japanese
Yokako Inoue, 2001 SUBIT runnerup and ranked No. 121
in the world. Rounding out the winners' circle in
the race supported by Reliv, Powerbar, Monoc Bike
Frames, David's Day Spa, New Balance and POC Sport
for All Commission were Portuguese Bruno Pais (1:55:36),
the frontrunner most of the way, the Kazakh Ekaterina
Shatnaya (2:12:24), 9th place in last year's Asian
championship.
Ashton's
compatriot Malcolm Lyons (1:59:10), 2002 SUBIT winner
and world's No.115, could only finish in 6th position
even as lone SUBIT back-to-back (2001 and '02) champion
Hong kong's Daniel Lee Chi Wo (1:56:14), world's No.
68, settled for 4th place. Junichi Yamamoto of Japan,
frustrated twice at SUBIT with runnerup showing in
1997 and '99 came in 5th at 1:56:47. Aussie Conrick
Boyd (1:59:10), HK's Andrew Wright (2:00:10) and Samuel
Leung (2:00:11) and Singapore's Marco Grillo (2:05:43)
completed the top 10 finishers.
In the accompanying Enervon National Triathlon Championship,
George Vilog and Ani Karina de Leon retained their
respective titles with times of 2:09:17 2:27:30, respectively.
