TRAP to follow ITU, WADA norms in Albay meets

MANILA, Philippines — The Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) will follow the strict standards of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) on water testing and anti-doping measures (under World Anti-Doping Agency standard) when the Mt. Mayon Triathlon Asian Cup and the Paratriathlon Asian Championships are held on Aug. 10 in Legazpi City, Albay.

For these events, the technical delegate assigned by the ITU and Asian Triathlon Confederation (ASTC) is Level 3 ITO Alan Ma of Macau supported by the self-funded international technical officials (ITO) Maria Bowden of Malaysia, Daniel Sng of Singapore, Tai Sun Tee of Malaysia, Philip Hall of Singapore and Leow Jo Lene of Singapore. Sarita Zafra is the competition manager. Under Ma, the water testing was done weeks before the event and the final water test will be done the day before the competition.

The local organizing committee (LOC) is headed by race director Fr. Jay Jacinto along with project director Tin Paulino and Mt. Mayon Triathlon proponent Joe Matias. There will be over 30 technical officials in all to work in the races. The technical officials meeting as well as the ParaTriathlon rules seminar will be held on Aug. 8 at the Oriental Hotel’s VIP Hall.

Anti-doping tests will be implemented for the 12 winning triathletes, including the Top 3 Elite males and Top 3 Elite females of the Mount Mayon Triathlon, and the Top 3 males and Top 3 females of the ParaTriathlon Asian Championships. The testing will be done by the Philippine Anti-Doping Organization (PHIL NADO) led by Dr. Alex Pineda.

The 2018 ASTC Mt. Mayon Triathlon is an Asian Cup event which features sprint distance (750m swim-20km bike-5km run) and standard distance (1.5km swim-40km bike-10km run) contests. Already 34 elite triathletes from eight countries have listed up. The Philippines will be led by 2017 SEA Games medalists Nikko Huelgas, Kim Mangrobang and Claire Adorna.

The ASTC ParaTriathlon Asian Championships has a race distance of 750m swim-20km bike-5km run.

For details, call up the TRAP through their Facebook page or by visiting Triathlon.org.ph.