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