VETERAN runner and race organizer Raffy Uytiepo took back his threat to ban runners who called for a boycott over their complaints on the Aboitiz Race To Reduce Challenge 2011.
“We have decided to forget everything. For those who threatened to boycott (the Aboitiz Run), it is their right to join or not. I am closing the issue already,” Uytiepo told Sun.Star Cebu.
Two organizers also clarified that they are not implementing a ban on runners.
AMONG the estimated 34,000 runners who braved the rains in Manila last Sunday was a doctor from Cebu running her first 42-kilometer race.
Dr. Cecillie “Tata” Milan, resident obstetrician/gynecologist of Cebu Puericulture Center And Maternity House, Inc., prayed for drizzle during the Milo Marathon but said she “didn’t expect it to rain from start to finish.”
Two years after getting encouraged by a friend and colleague, Dr. Benjamin Balaoro, to register for a 5K race in the Milo Marathon Cebu Leg, Milan was running her first full marathon.
Balaoro had encouraged her by saying “that a certain doctor has been running for awhile now and that if she can do it, we can also do it. I rose up to the challenge, even if I could barely finish one round at the oval.”
Cebuana Joeyry Lee of the University of Southern Philippines topped the women’s 21K of the National Milo Marathon Tagbilaran City leg this morning.
Lee blazed through the tough 21K route, which featured several uphill portions, in 1:36 to be the lone female qualifier to the Milo Marathon national finals in Manila on Dec. 12.
DIONESIO BELMONTE, JR. AND JOEYRY LEE. The top male and female finishers of the Milo Marathon 21K Tagbilaran City eliminations. The two have qualified for the national finals on Dec. 12. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (CONTRIBUTED FOTO)It was her first time to compete in the distance after consistently winning in shorter Milo races. She won the Milo 5K category at 8 years old and topped last year’s 10K race.
The 18-year-old Lee was groomed by her father to be a runner even when she was still two years old.
“I’ve always wanted to try the 21k but I was too young then, now that I am of age I proved to everyone that I can do it,” Lee told Milo in Tagalog.
Cebuanas dominated the 21K category in Tagbilaran with Jane-Jane Ong placing 4th with her time of 1:59:01; Rachel Limtong at 6th, 2:01:31; Veronica Ong at 9th, 2:10:43, and Rowena Duarte at 10th, 2:20:55. They were the runners identified as Cebuanas by CebuRunning.com sources.
IN last Sunday’s Milo 21K race in Cebu, Nora Rosete Tecling headed to the South Road Properties (SRP) to give up.
She was almost unable to bear the heat and was ready to quit at the turning point near the Cebu Institute of Technology University but Dan Morales, a member of the Ungo Runners, a group that runs every Friday night from Sun.Star Cebu to the IT Park, told her to continue at least until the SRP where he would wait for her.
NORA ROSETE TECLING gets escorted by Ungo Runners on the final stretch of her grueling 21K run. Race officials had told Nora to quit the race because they thought she couldn’t finish it. They thought wrong. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (PHOTO BY AXL ACLIBAR)Morales manned the mobile water station of the Ungo Runners at the CIT in Sunday’s 21K race of the Milo Marathon Cebu leg. He hadn’t slept since Saturday and spent the early morning hours of Sunday going through the Milo 21K route to count the number of water stations and find where he could set up his own station to serve ice-cold water and Gatorade to Ungo Runners.
With several Ungo Runners joining their first official 21K last Sunday, the group decided to field mobile water stations to make sure members were well-hydrated on race day. Bikik Besavilla started the initiative by managing to get contributions from Summit. It was already too late to arrange for supplies from our regular Ungo run supporter James Abilla for St. James water.
Milo had set the tone for generosity earlier that week. The company gave away 400 shoes to students of Tejero Elementary School and the good deed was matched by the local running community.
A runner who sells chicharon or pork cracklings for a living topped the 21K men’s division in Sunday’s Cebu leg of the 34th Milo Marathon.
Adonis Singson set aside his chicharon to race on Sunday. He finished the tough 21K route that passed the South Road Properties (SRP) at a time when the sun was already high up the sky. Adonis claimed the top spot, which carried a P10,000 top prize and an all-expenses paid trip to the Milo Marathon National Finals in Manila on Dec. 12. Singson, 27, finished third last year and placed second in 2006 and 2007.
BIGGEST MILO PROVINCIAL LEG. With close to 23,000 runners joining, the Cebu leg of the 34th Milo Marathon is the biggest edition of the race outside Manila. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) He told Milo that he decided to go for the top spot after learning that defending champion Mendel Lopez wasn’t joining. Lopez got busy preparing for the geodetic engineering board examination, which he recently passed.
Jobert Carolino finished in second place with a time of 1:15:39 while Mohsherwin Managil won third place with a time of 1:17:10.
Completing the top 10 are 4.) Noel Tillor; 5.) Dandy Maturan; 6.) Ian Refuela ; 7.) Harold Estrada; 8.) Noy Jopson; 9.) Paul James Zafico and 10.) Renz Ericson Gabuya .