Allen, Paterson rule Philippines
Ben Allen of Australia held off a determined charge by South Africa’s Dan Hugo and two-time XTERRA World Champion Lesley Paterson of Scotland smashed the women’s field and outraced all but two of the men to win the elite titles at the XTERRA Philippines Championship Saturday in Lilioan.
Men
Allen prevailed in a close, race-long duel, finishing in 2:37:40 with just under a minute margin of victory over runner-up Hugo and a dominating 10:39 advantage over 3rd-place finisher Sam Gardner of Great Britain.
The win was Allen’s successful title defense and his 4th straight in the Western Pacific, as he swept the 2012 Triple Crown of XTERRA championship events in the Philippines, Guam and Saipan.
“I am very proud to defend my title and loved every minute of it,” said Allen. Allen did not have a minute to spare, as Hugo put up a valiant, close-fought duel despite several mishaps.
“It was a thrilling event,” Hugo wrote on Twitter, as he survived two flat tires, a crash and a late race meltdown. “I ran into the lead but lost to a class effort by Benny Allen.”
Hugo’s runner-up finish was his second in a row, following his 2nd-place finish at the XTERRA World Tour event in South Africa last week.
Allen began with a race-best 16:53 swim that opened up a 30-seconds lead on Hugo.
After the first loop of the bike course, Allen held a 1 minute 30 seconds lead over Hugo and 3 minutes on Sam Gardner. In the middle of the bike leg, which crosses the main street of Liloan several times, Allen lost his lead by an inadvertent misdirection by a lap split bike marshal who waved Ben onto the route back to transition. Allen went a few hundred yards down the main road before immediately turning back to make his second lap. After that accidental detour, Hugo was led and Allen came up just behind Sam Gardner in 3rd. At that point, a young girl ran in front of Gardner and he hit her. Gardner stopped to help the young lady, and thankfully she sustained no injuries. During the confusion, Allen maneuvered through the crowd to reclaim 2nd.
On the challenging mountain bike section, Allen’s 1:37:49 split added 39 seconds to his lead. Sam Gardner posted the day’s best bike split – 1:35:26 – which moved him up to third place but nowhere near the top two contenders.
Hugo, after surviving all his mishaps, blasted into the lead well into the 10k cross country run. But after that all-out effort on a severely up and down course in searing heat, Hugo ran out of gas and allowed Allen to retake the lead and earn the win. After his redlining meltdown, Hugo’s race-best 42:00 run did cut 10 seconds out of Allen’s lead but fell 51 second short at the line.
Women
Paterson dominated but fell just a sliver away from perfection on the tough Philippines course as Jacqui Slack’s 19:37 swim outpaced Paterson by 15 seconds. After that, the Paterson Express left the station with a race-best 1:40:43 bike split which was 4:50 better than her next fastest competitor, defending champ Renata Bucher of Switzerland. On the run, Paterson’s race-best 43:16 split was 8:12 better than closest challenger Bucher and just 1 minute 16 seconds slower than the men’s best run time – Dan Hugo’s 42:00.
When it was all over, Paterson’s 2:45:41 race time was 14:22 quicker than runner-up Bucher and 31:22 better than 3rd-place finisher Darelle Parker of Great Britain. In a sign of ever-increasing gender equality in XTERRA racing, Paterson’s race time was just 8:01 back of men’s winner Ben Allen, 8:52 back of runner-up Hugo – and better than every other man in the field including 5th place finisher Olivier Marceau, the 2000 ITU Olympic distance World Champion and former XTERRA men’s World Champion.
Paterson did not at all think of her win as a breeze, as the course’s challenge was equal to its rural beauty. “XTERRA Philippines is seriously hard core, like nothing I've ever experienced,” said Paterson to XTERRA media. “I almost ran over a chicken, a goat, a cow and plenty more.”
“This was one of the hardest races ever,” Bucher told XTERRA media. “The heat was brutal.”
XTERRA Philippines Championship
Lilioan, Cebu, Philippines
March 2, 2013
S 1.5k / B 18k / R 10k
Results
Elite Men
1. Ben Allen (AUS) 2:37:40
2. Dan Hugo (RSA) 2:38:31
3. Sam Gardner (GBR) 2:48:19
4. Bradley Weiss (RSA) 2:48:46
5. Olivier Marceau (SUI) 2:56:54
Elite Women
1. Lesley Paterson (GBR) 2:45:41
2. Renata Bucher (SUI) 3:00:03
3. Darelle Parker (GBR) 3:17:03
4. Jacqui Slack (GBR) 3:55:21
