Bradley Weiss of South Africa and Lizzie Orchard of New Zealand won the 6th annual XTERRA Philippines Championship in Albay on Sunday.
It’s the third win in as many weeks for Weiss, who captured the first two races of the XTERRA South Africa Series before traveling to the Philippines to defend his title. For Orchard, it’s her first championship win on the XTERRA World Tour following three runner-up finishes and an impressive 5th place showing at XTERRA Worlds last year.
In the men’s race Ben Allen was first out of the water, one-minute ahead of Weiss. Weiss then posted the fastest bike split of the day (1:25:30) to take a one-minute lead of his own onto the run. Allen crashed hard just before the bike-to-run transition but still hung on for second-place, holding off fellow Aussie Brodie Gardner by just nine seconds. Takahiro Ogasawara came in fourth and Charlie Epperson posted the fastest run split among elites to finish in fifth.
In the women’s race Jacqui Slack had the fastest swim and bike splits to take a two-minute, 35-second lead onto the run but Lizzie Orchard posted a blistering run split to take the tape in 2:52:14, more than two minutes ahead of Slack. Mieko Carey finished in third.
XTERRA Philippines was the second of six races in the 2015-2016 XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour where pros and amateurs count their best three scores (the finale in Malaysia counts double). With the win Orchard moves into first place in the women’s chase, followed by Slack and Carey. Ogasawara sits atop the men’s standings ahead of Americans Charlie Epperson and Cameron O’Neal.
Next up on the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour is the Crown Jewel in Saipan (March 12, 2016), then XTERRA New Zealand (April 16, 2016), the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship in Australia (April 23, 2016) and the tour finale at XTERRA Malaysia (May 7, 2016). The 2016-17 season will then begin with Tahiti (May 14, 2016) followed by Japan (date TBD) and points will continue to accumulate into 2017 until the Grand Finale in Langkawi at XTERRA Malaysia in May.
Elite Men
1 Bradley Weiss, RSA 2:29:56
2 Ben Allen, AUS 2:33:59
3 Brodie Gardner, AUS 2:34:08
4 Takahiro Ogasawara, JPN 2:41:04
5 Charlie Epperson, USA 2:43:40
Elite Women
1 Lizzie Orchard, NZL 2:52:14
2 Jacqui Slack, GBR 2:54:30
3 Mieko Carey, JPN 3:07:35