PARTNERS John Philip Dueñas and Mary Joy Tabal emerged winners in the 10-kilometer race of the Petron Run For Safety yesterday even as organizers struggled to release race results due to errors in the timing system.
Dueñas crossed the finish line at The Terraces of the Ayala Center Cebu in 33 minutes and 48 seconds to beat the Kenyan duo of Isaac Simat and Douglas Mwiti, who finished second and third, respectively.
The official times of other contenders were not released although race director Joel Baring confirmed the victory of Dueñas and Tabal.
Baring said the group in charge of the timing system from Manila was not able to match the names of the runners with their race bibs. “During the awarding, the organizers just called the runners by their numbers instead of names so it was difficult for us to identify immediately the winning runners,” said Baring. He did, however, come up with the names of the winners in the 10k category.
Tabal, in fact, monitored her own time and said she clocked 39 minutes and 19 seconds to rule the distaff side. Tabal said she only remembered the second placer in her category, who was Lovely Fe Andrin.
It was a huge win for Dueñas, who is preparing for the Ironman 70.3 Philippines triathlon event to be held here on Aug. 4.
While Tabal easily won the women’s crown, Dueñas had to fight hard for his win. He started off slow but managed to overtake the Kenyans in the last three kilometers of the race.
“I had difficulty running at first because I just came from Bohol, where I was training for the biking leg of the Ironman event,” said Dueñas. “But I thank God I was able to beat them after I picked up my pace in the last 3k.” /CORRESPONDENT DALE G. ROSAL