Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Filipino-Canadian Triathlon Club or FILCANTRI is the first and biggest Triathlon Club in Canada made up mostly of Filipinos passionate about the challenging sports of triathlon. On July 23rd, 2023, at the 10th Toronto Triathlon Festival, Team FILCANTRI, in an emphatic fashion, won the Men’s Relay.
The distance, which covers 1500m of swimming, 40kms of biking and 10kms of running was won by a trio of Philippine born athletes.
The team is composed of swimmer Lloyd Ramos, cyclist Charlie ‘Masiken’ Garcia, and runner/coach Ricardo Mansueto.
Their Record
The swim, which is normally the weaker link in relays past, was anchored by new member Ramos, who powered through the leg in just over 24 minutes. This performance is easily the fastest olympic distance swim of any FilCanTri member to date. This put the team within striking distance of the leaders of the other teams.
After the swim, Garcia literally swept through the field, producing the fastest bike split of the day. He finished the 40km course along the DVP in an astonishing 1 hour and 27 seconds. This ride put the team in 2nd position, less than 30 seconds from the leading team.
On the run, there was no denying the team a victory, as Mansueto, an accomplished runner, ran 10kms in under 37 minutes. This run was so dominant that FilCanTri finished almost 15 minutes ahead of the next team.
Team Coach and runner Mansueto had this to say about their victory, “We are obviously very happy with this win. This was a last minute decision to register. But when I saw Lloyd come out of the swim with such a small gap from the leaders, I knew we had a shot at it. Unfortunately, Charlie received a penalty for his suit. But he rode like a beast and put us in a good spot. And luckily I had good legs today to finish it off. To win by this much is really satisfying. This is a really balanced team, and we hope to do more races this season”.
Proud Filipino-Canadian triathlon club
This is the first all-Filipino team to win a relay in olympic distance triathlon at this event. And with the calibre and depth of athletes that FilCanTri currently has, this will likely be the first of many. Aside from the relay team, there were also 7 age groupers who participated and completed the event over the weekend. Triathlon is a growing sport within the Filipino community, and FilCanTri is in the forefront of this growth.
For anyone interested in joining or just knowing more about the team, you can visit their website at www.filcantri.ca. — Melvin Pangan, Filipino-Canadian Triathlon Club
