Olympian Buenavista to represent PHL in King of the Road

Olympian Eduardo Buenavista, together with Cebu-based Mary Ann delos Santos, will represent the Philippines in the King of the Road Southeast Asian championships after topping their respective 16.8K elimination races, which started and ended inside the Global City in Taguig, Sunday. Known to his friends as Vertek, Buenavista reached the finish line with a time of 54 minutes and 41 seconds to bag the Philippine King of the Road title and pocket the top prize worth P35,000, plus the right to represent the Philippines in the forthcoming Southeast Asian championship in Singapore on October 28. "Isa lang ang masasabi ko, paghahandaan nang husto ang Singapore leg," said the 34-year-old Buenavista, who represented the Philippines in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2003 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) held here in Manila, after the awarding rites. The 34-year-old Buenavista, who originally came from General Santos City, shared the podium with second placer Irineo Raquia (56:35) and third placer Alley Quisay (58:00). Also called to stand with the podium finishers on the stage were fourth placer Dawin Lim (59:37) and Rene Desuyo (59:41) In the female category, Mary Ann delos Santos, who last week posted a second place finish in the 21-K event of the 2012 Rexona Run held in the Mall of Asia, posted a time of one hour, 7 minutes and 9 seconds to earn her spot in the regional championship. Delos Santos likewise pocketed the top prize worth P35,000. Finishing at second spot was May Joy Tabal (1:07:09) and at third was Christabel Martes (1:10:22). Rhea Anna Barcena (1:13:51), who booked a third place finish in the 2012 Rexona Run's 21K event could only muster a fourth place spot this time while Anna Jean Tamayo (1:14:21) shared in the limelight with a fifth place finish. The second place finisher in both the men's and women's events went home with the P15,000 cash prize while the third placers bagged P10,000, the fourth and fifth placers earned P5,000. Kenyan Jackson Chirchir, who last week topped the 21K event of the 2012 Rexona Run, posted another victory, this time in the 10K event with a winning time of 32:15. Finishing second was Richard Solano (32:20) and Andrico Mahilum (37:12) placed third. In the women's 10K, Filipino runners Luisa Raterta (42:39) and Michelle de Vera (45:24) relegated Kenyan runner Susan Jemutal (47:33) to third place. Like Chirchir, Raterta went home with the top prize worth P15,000 while the second placers of both categories bagged P10,000 and the third placers P7,500. Meantime, Michael Balong (16:49) topped the men's 5k event, finishing with a 16:49 clocking while Michael Villamor came in second with a time of 16:50. Wenie Basalo placed third with an 18:16 clocking. In the women's 5K event, Floredeliza Donos submitted a time of 19:16 to top the event. She was followed to the finish line by second placer Antonella Zanatti (21:05) and third spot finisher Jocelyn Galo (22:03). - AMD, GMA News