Ironman 70.3 set to honor Davao tribes

THE Alveo Ironman 70.3 Philippines goes diverse as it marks its return to Davao on March 26 at Azuela Cove by unveiling an 11-man Team Maisugon competition in honor of the 11 tribes of the host city with a winner-take-all prize of P550,000 at stake.

“Every Ironman race has its own uniqueness per location. This is our way of showing how this can be diverse,” Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte. “We are showcasing the 11 tribes of Davao City and it’s going to be a prestigious award only in Davao City.” The grand prize was initially pegged at P500,000, put up by the city government, but Davao Light Power Company Inc. added P50,000 to the purse.

The special category is open to teams made up of 11 agegroupers regardless of age, gender, race, nationality or color.

The team with the fastest total time will win the coveted Tribu Maisugon award, including a perpetual trophy handcrafted by noted homegrown artist Kublai Millan.

The Tribu Maisugon team competition will thus be included in the third Ironman 70.3 which Davao City is hosting after 2018 and 2019. It will also mark the pros’ return to one of the highlight events of each triathlon season and the only pro-laced race offered this year, according to the organizing The Ironman GroupSunrise Events Inc.

“It’s a continuity of first two [Ironman 70.3 Davao] races—from race for peace, culture, then now, it’s a race for oneness,” Millan said. Registration is ongoing. For details, log on to ironman.com/im703-davao-philippines-athletes

Tribu Maisugon emanates from the 11 tribes where Davao City is focused on, including Ata, Maguindanaon, Matigsalug, Bagobo Klata, Maranao, Obo Manuvu, Bagobo-Tagabawa, Tasug, Sama, Iranun and Kagan.

Other titles to be disputed in the punishing 1.9-km swim/90-km bike/21-km run race set over a championship course are the relay all male, relay all female and relay mixed.

The event has drawn more than a thousand participants from all over, including a slew of top pros, headed by Aussies Dimity-Lee Duke and Sarah Crowley and Lottie Lucas of United Arab Emirates, with The IRONMAN Group/SEI looking to surpass its target of 1,500 entries with still five weeks left before the blue-ribbon event is fired off.

And in 2016, I got acquainted with Gil Cortez with the BaliPure volleyball team and worked with them not only as media officer, but also with their team building. Since then, that friendship has only grown.

During the first year of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 virus, I got to invite about five players from Toyota to my podcast—Cortez, Emer Legaspi, Ompong Segura, Ricky Relosa and Uly Rodriguez. What a thrill that was.

While writing several chapters in Baby Dalupan’s book, the coach would often tease me when I visited him at his Loyola Grand Villas home that “it killed him every time I visited because I was a Toyota fan.”

I would also gently riposte Coach Baby by saying that I was a fan of his as an Ateneo athlete and as coach of the Blue Eagles.

Last February 18, at the Gaslight Alfresco at Don Chino Roces Avenue, I got to sit down, talk and eat with my Toyota heroes. Now about only 15 of them made it but that was beside the point. I was just thrilled.

If the 50th Anniversary Reunion brought back memories for the players, it sure did for me as a fan. I am still pinching myself so know that I wasn’t dreaming.