Seven vie for the last two spots in the PHL XTERRA team

The challenge is on as to who will complete the five-person team which will represent the country for the first time in the XTERRA Off-road Triathlon Global Championships in Maui, Hawaii on October 28, 2012. Vaseline Men brand manager Jonathan Cua said on Wednesday that four-time national triathlon champion Noy Jopson and actor-triathletes Matteo Guidicelli and GMA talent Drew Arellano are assured of spots on the team, while the two other members of the squad will be selected through a search via the Vaseline Men XTERRA Tri-Outs Camp: Race to Maui. Cua explained that the Vaseline Men XTERRA Tri-outs Camp: Race to Maui was a three-day camp held on September 15-17, wherein seven pre-selected triathletes competed for the last two spots. The seven hopefuls are blogger Jinoe Gavan, chiropractor Dr. Martin Camara, Second Wind’s Hector Yuzon, ultra-marathoner Mark Hernandez, Health Food president Raffy Zamora, swimbikerun.ph’s Carlos De Guzman, and Sutherland Global Services corporate training manager Redg Plopinio. Gavan is the only participant in the search without real triathlon experience, which could be a big factor in the world championships where participants will be tackling a 1.5-kilometer (1-mile) rough water swim, a 29.5-kilometer (18.3 miles) mountain bike ride and a 9.8-kilometer (6.1 miles) trail run route.

Videos of the three-day camp will be uploaded on YouTube so that supporters and fans can watch the training and vote for their favorite triathletes to join the Maui trip. Participants in the voting will automatically get an electronic raffle entry for a chance to win P50,000. "Two lucky voters of the triathlete with the most number of votes will get a chance to win P50,000 each.  Voting ends on October 17, 2012 which will be followed by the electronic draw on October 18. The winners will be announced in the Vaseline Men Facebook page," Cua said. "The triathletes with the highest scores by October 18 will represent the Philippines together with coach Noy, Matteo and Drew in the XTERRA World Championships in Maui. The top two athletes will also be announced online on October 18," added Cua. An XTERRA triathlon is an off-road race which include swimming, trail-runnning and mountain biking. The sport started in 1996 in Wailea, Maui in Hawaii, according to xterraplanet.com, when it was then called Aquaterra, with avid triathletes and mountain bikers participating in an open-ocean swim, a mountain bike race and a trail run. It has since grown into the world's premiere off-road triathlon with a series of qualifying races all over the world for the world championship annually held in Maui, Hawaii. The name of the event also evolved and is now known world wide as XTERRA off-road triathlon. XTERRA Philippines, on its website, explained that in the United States, amateur triathletes must qualify for the world championship by competing in at least three of the 50 races and earn points to gain a spot in XTERRA Regional Championship races. Winners in the regional championships are then given automatic entry to the XTERRA USA Championship held in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Top finishers in the regional and national championships are invited to participate in the XTERRA World Championship in Maui, Hawaii, wherein only a total of 800 participants are allowed to compete. Outside of the USA, those who want to compete in the world championship can qualify in in their own national championships, while several top triathletes can get the endorsement of their national XTERRA associations. The XTERRA Philippines qualifying event was held in Liloan, Cebu last March with Renata Bucher of Switzerland and Ben Allen of Australia winning the female and male categories, respectively. - AMD, GMA News