Carlo Carrasco, On March 6, 2012

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu– With its new effort to boost sports development and tourism, the world-class Plantation Bay Resort & Spa will be hosting a two-day triathlon camp as well two separate triathlon events late this month in partnership with the Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) as announced in a press conference on February 28.


The Two Races

TRAP Visayas director Oscar ‘Boying’ Rodriguez revealed that for the first time ever, the popular SuperTriKids triathlon series will make its debut in Cebu on March 31 while the Cebu-leg of the ongoing Century Tuna National Age-Group Triathlon (NAGT) series will take place the next day April 1st. With Rodriguez at the conference were race directors Joel Baring and Raffy Osumo as well as Plantation Bay Resort & Spa’s Efren Belarmino (general manager) and Chokie Ortiz (recreation manager).

Rodriguez stated that when Cebu hosted the NAGT race in 2011, he noticed that many of the 220 participants brought their kids with them and this inspired the idea of Cebu hosting a SuperTriKids race at last.

Participants on the SuperTriKids race will endure different race courses based on their age categories as follows:

Under-7 Years (50 meter swim – 500 meter bike – 100 meter run)

Age 7-8  (50 meter swim – 1 Km bike – 200 meter run)

Age 9-10 (100 meter swim – 2 Km bike – 400 meter run)

Age 11-12 (200 meter swim – 4 Km bike – 1 Km run)

Age 13-15 (300 meter swim – 8 Km bike – 2 Km run)

For participants of the April 1 Century Tuna NAGT event, the race course will be composed of a one kilometer swim, thirty kilometer bike and 7.5 Km run. Age-groups will range from 16 to 60 years and will be divided by five years per group (example: 25-29, 30-34, etc.)

The events are sponsored by Century Tuna, Plantation Bay Resort & Spa, Gatorade, RUNNR, Philippine Sports Commission, Arena, Standard Insurance and Asian Centre for Insulation Philippines Inc.


Triathlon Camp

Leading up to the races however is a two-day triathlon camp for athletic kids that will be held on March 29 and March 30. It will be conducted by TRAP’s junior developmental coach Melvin Fausto and behind it all is an ongoing effort by the TRAP to find potential candidates for the prestigious 2014 Youth Olympic Games which will be hosted by Nanjing, China.

The first day of the camp will involve physical activities of swimming, biking and running. The next day, nutrition as well as doing race transition will be tackled.


Rebuilding Triathlon in Cebu

Just as sports tourism is finally getting a big boost in Cebu, triathlon is also becoming popular again for Cebuanos. Through the years, Plantation Bay Resort & Spa hosted several triathlon events and stood out for its scenic surrounding, classy lagoons and modern facilities. Such events reaffirm the resort’s commitment and as a as a strategic partner for sports organizers in working hand in hand and promoting Cebu as a major venue for both sports and tourism and is conjunction with Lapu-Lapu City's aggressive sports tourism campaigns.

Tags – tourism, sports, triathlon, Plantation Bay Resort & Spa, Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP), Cebu, tourist spot.