Gold medalist wants SEAG obstacle race

LONG DISTANCE RUNNER Sandi Menchi Abahan (center) is hopeful the obstacle course race will be included in the 2021 Southeast Asian Games despite host Vietnam’s decision to exclude it. Abahan won gold medal in the 2019 SEA Games hosted by the Philippines. 

By Pigeon Lobien 

BAGUIO CITY – A gold medalist in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) remains hopeful that triathlon and obstacle course race (OCR) will be included in the 31st edition which Vietnam will host in November next year.
    Sandi Menchi Abahan, the country’s top female ultra-marathoner and trail runner who won gold medal in the 30th SEAG hosted by the Philippines, made this comment after Vietnam SEAG Organizing Committee decided not to include triathlon, OCR, and arnis in the next biennial meet.
    “The national sports association (Pilipinas Obstacle Sports Federation) is making the plea. I still do hope that the two events will be included in the Vietnam SEAG,” Abahan said in a chance interview with the Philippine News Agency.
    Triathlon, OCR and arnis contributed 23 gold medals for the Philippines which won the overall title of the 2019 SEA Games with a total of 149 gold, 116 silver and 118 bronze medals.
    The Philippines swept the three gold medals and won two silvers in triathlon.
    The country also bagged six golds, including one from Abahan, three silvers and a bronze medal in the obstacle course of the 2019 meet.
    The Philippine arnis team, on the other hand, dominated the event with 14 gold medals on top of the four silver and two bronze medals, the most for any NSA.
    Abahan was supposed to fly to Chamonix, France in late August to join the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc in the Sur le Traces des Ducs de Savoie category which she joined in 2017.
    She said Joseph Alexander Ramos, an 18-year-old triathlete from Baguio City, has a good chance to make his debut if triathlon will be reconsidered in the Vietnam SEAG.
    Ramos made headlines here last month when he donated his PHP15,000 monthly allowance from the Philippine Sports            Commission (PSC) for the city’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response.
    Abahan had been training here with Ramos. (PNA)