Sam Gardner of Great Britain and reigning XTERRA World Champion Shonny Vanlandingham of the USA won the inaugural XTERRA Philippines Championship in Cebu Sunday.
Gardner, who has also won XTERRA championship races in Saipan and Japan, exited the Camotes Sea swim 5th and took the lead 3 kilometers into the 32-km bike course.
“I knew I had to get a big lead in the bike part of the race [Gardner’s 1:17:00 split outpaced his fastest rivals by 15 minutes] because I was concerned about the run,” Gardner told XTERRA media. “Good thing I was able to get that big lead. In the run I was able to focus on just enjoying the race. I just soaked it in, high-fiving the locals and basically just enjoyed it all.”
The run course was typical of the adventurous, rugged XTERRA international series. It was inhabited by fighting cocks, goats and cats and included a bamboo walkway over water. Thanks to his killer bike split, Gardner could take it conservatively on the challenging run -- his 43:32 10k trail run was 2 minutes slower than Vanlandingham and 1 minute slower than second place man and Philippine champion Neil Catiil.
But with so many minutes in the bank on the bike, Gardner’s 2:25:59 overall time bested runner-up Catiil by 13 minutes 25 seconds.
Reigning XTERRA Maui World Champion Vanlandingham trailed Renata Bucher of Switzerland out of the swim by just 11 seconds, then the duo rode the entire bike virtually together.
Vanlandingham finally shook off Bucher 3 km into the run. When Vanlandingham hit the line in 2:31:39 after a women’s race-best 41:17 10k trail run, she had a margin of 1:56 over runner-up Bucher, and 10:24 over third place Carina Wasle of Austria.
“The kids who watched the bike and run part of the race were chanting and cheering,” Vanlandingham told XTERRA media. “It’s great to come to a place like the Philippines.”
XTERRA Philippines Championship
Cebu City, Philippines
March 6, 2011
S 1.5k / MTB 32k / R 10k
Results
Elite men
1. Sam Gardner (GBR) 2:25:59
2. Neil Catiil (PHI) 2:39:24
3. George Vilog (PHI) 2:43:43
4. Noel Salvador (PHI) 2:47:50
5. Noy Jopson (PHI) 2:47:55
Elite Women
1. Shonny Vanlandingham (USA) 2:31:39
2. Renata Bucher (SUI) 2:33:35
3. Carina Wasle (AUT) 2:42:03
4. Darrelle Parker (GBR) 2:53:03
5. Caroline Colonna (USA) 3:02:37
