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Philippines

Guts and glory for Filipino mountaineers
Source: Inquirer
Author: Michel Pedroso
Date: 1999-07-11
 


WHEN news spread that the Gerard

Fusil Company's ''Elf Authentic

Adventure'' would be held in the

Philippines, local outdoor sports circles, mountaineering clubs

included, buzzed with excitement.



Having experienced the

glory and drama of

adventure races like the

Raid Gauloises and

Eco-Challenge, the Ayala

Mountaineers Club, for

one, decided that the Elf

was one event that

shouldn't be missed.



Adventure racing is a

multi-sport competition

involving kayaking, trail running, caving, orienteering (land

navigation) and rollerblading.



Organizers of Elf, held last May in Samar, Biliran and Leyte,

added two indigenous means of transport--the banca and the

subiran (sailboat).



Besides the Ayala Mountaineers, 21 teams from all over the

world signed up for the Elf, which was co-sponsored by

Coleman. Two other Filipino teams were the Mosart-Elf

Lubricants and the Sanofi-Eco Adventours Davao.



Each team consisted of a racing crew and a support crew. The

racing crew had four members--one of them a woman, per race

rules. The support crew had three members, who were in charge

of food supplies and equipment, and whom the racing crew met

only at designated stations.



Since many members of the Ayala Mountaineers had wanted to

join the race, a rigorous elimination round was conducted.

Those who hurdled it again underwent strict, detailed training to

build up their strength and hone the various skills needed for

the race's 10-day ordeal.



But it wasn't all about strength. Team Leader Manny Torralba

repeatedly stressed: ''What really counts is team chemistry.''



Theirs was a motley racing crew. Torralba, manager of Ayala

Theaters, is a veteran mountaineer who has recently ventured

into other nature sports. Mike Mendoza is a dentist by

profession, who was supposed to train for triathlon when the Elf

trials came. Dante Tablizo Jr. juggles his career as an engineer

with swimming and hiking. Export agent Jhenda Hernandez is an

accomplished kayaker. Logistics crew Robina Pascual, Jacob

Almendrala and Sergio Jamila III completed the team.



And Team Ayala never had it easy. A month prior to the race,

they still lacked some essential equipment--a lack that was

luckily filled by a few companies. One of them, Coleman Asia,

provided the logistics crew with tents, camp stools, lanterns,

flashlights, coolers, stoves, cook sets and other camping gear.



What the team lacked in sponsorship and finances, they made

up for with their determination to succeed, During the first four

days of the competition, they were lagging behind in the tally

board, made worse by a wrong turn in one of the mountain trails

that cost them a day. But as the race dragged on, they steadily

improved their time.



The turnaround came in the second cave they entered. While

the other teams were panicking over failing to find the right

path, members of Team Ayala read the map right, catapulting

them to the rank of front-runners. If not for some difficulty in the

rollerblading part, they would have given France's Team Gym

Salomon an intense neck-and-neck race in the subiran leg.



Competing teams endured more than 200 kilometers of mixed sea

and river kayaking, plus another 80 arduous km of trekking,

mountain climbing and caving. They complained about the

difficulty of progressing head-on through Samar's thick jungle

flora. Then an 85-km traverse of the island was completed by

paddling a banca. And despite swollen feet from continuous

bouts with damp trails and insects, they still rollerbladed 101 km.



The final assault was 103 km of pristine sea aboard colorful

subiran. In all, the adventurers covered 689 km of mixed terrain,

rivers and sea, above and underground.



Of the 22 teams, only 10 finished the race--the Ayala

Mountaineers and the Mozart-Elf Lubricants among them. The

international team Spie Batignolles topped the Extreme Class,

while Team Gym Salomon won the Adventure Class.



Tied for second place in the Adventure Class were the Ayala

Mountaineers, Italy's Renoma Team Kong and the international

team Tchibouela. Mozart-Elf was third.



The Ayala Mountaineers' second-place finish in the Adventure

Class is the best so far for a Filipino team participating in this

type of international competition.





 

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