By Ram Christian Agustin
Mitch Robins waded through a league of internationally renowned pros in triathlon and came out victorious at the Black Arrow Express 5150 on Sunday in Subic Bay as he ended the reign of a fellow Australian and reigning champion Sam Betten.
The world-class course setup with an Olympic distance of 1.5k swim followed by a 40k bike and 20k run, was traversed by a total of 627 participants from 21 countries, including eight pros.
“In any day, a win is a good day. I’m super happy to take on the Black Arrow Express 5150 here in Subic Bay,” said Robins. “I’ve been joining for 6 or 7 years in Sunrise Events. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a win here, so I’m very happy and of course I’ll be back and keep coming back for a long time.”
Robins recently placed third at the 2018 IRONMAN 70.3 Shanghai and clinched second behind champion Betten at last year’s Regent 5150 Subic Bay.
“Sam is such a tough competitor, he’s beaten me so many times here. Today, I simply managed the heat a little bit better and that just gave me an advantage at the end,” said Robins.
Betten, a three-time champion from 2015 to 2017 here, settled for second place, with Czech Jakub Langhammer coming in third in beating other pros Tim Linn and Dan Brown.
“It’s not what I hoped for, but it’s a really tough race,” said Betten. “It was a really good race and I pushed really hard and I was very happy with that, but the result was not really what I wanted in the end. But it just goes to show that in this sport, you are constantly trying to improve and stay at the top and that’s what really motivates me. Just trying to push every single day, get better every single race. I’ll be back here. I love racing in the Philippines.”
Meanwhile, Guam’s Manami Iijuma dominated the female pro division against Leanne Szeto from Hong Kong and Dimity Lee Duke from Australia.
“I think I did really good despite some hiccups in my training and in the race. I’m very happy and thankful for such an amazing event. I’m so happy to wrap up my season here,” said Iijuma.
The triathlon festival was organized by Sunrise Events Inc. in partnership with one of the top cargo movers Black Arrow and hosted by Subic Bay and ACEA Subic Bay.
“If you look at our growth for the last 10 years, it’s spectacular so I expect us to continue to grow. We’ll have more races next year in 2019. We have so many people coming into the sport and the future is really bright for triathlon, for IRONMAN, and Sunrise Events,” said Wilfred Steven Uytengsu, founder of Sunrise Events Inc.