‘Surban may snatch Olympic seat’
Top-notch mountain biker Niño Surban has a chance to represent the Philippines in the 2012 London Olympics.
This as the 17th 2011 Asian Mountainbike (MTB) Championships, which serves as the London 2012 Olympic qualifying event, returns to China in Suzhou City next month.
This will be the same course used back in the 2007 Asian MTB Championships, which also served as the 2008 Beijing Olympics qualifying event.
In that 2007 race, Surban finished 12th overall and fourth among the Asian countries next to China, Japan and Thailand.
This year, Oscar “Boying” Rodriguez, who was appointed as one of the international MTB commissaries for the 2011 17th Asian MTB Championships, said Surban has a very big chance of qualifying because he is already familiar with the course and he excels in the uphill course.
“He was one of the few who did not get off his bike while negotiating that uphill course back in 2007,” Rodriguez said.
Article continues after this advertisementAside from being familiar with the course, Surban may also qualify for the London Olympics should he finished even just third in this year’s Asian MTB Championships.
Article continues after this advertisementThis is because they appealed to the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC) to let the top three Asian countries compete in the London Olympics.
Normally, only the top two countries qualify for the Olympics, which was the reason why China and Japan were the only Asian countries in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Rodriguez said that China and Japan usually bid for the Asian MTB Championships whenever it is the Olympic qualifying year because it gives them the “homecourt” advantage.
In last year’s Asian MTB Championship in Korea, Surban finished first among the Southeast Asian countries and fifth behind Japan, China, Korea and Kasakhstan.
By doing so, he bested the 2009 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) MTB gold medalist from Thailand.
Surban will be competing in the cross country event of the 2011 17th Asian MTB Championships. Joining him is 2005 SEAG gold medalist Joey Barba, who will see action in the downhill event.
