Cebuanos rule Milo National Marathon Manila Leg

MANILA, Philippines: Cebuanos Florendo Lapiz and Lizane Abella ruled the men’s and women’s 42K categories, respectively, in the 2024 Milo National Marathon held along Roxas Boulevard on Sunday, April 28.

Lapiz, who hails from Carcar, timed 2:42:33 to top the men’s side while Abella of Minglanilla clocked 3:21:05 to emerge champion in the women’s side, as the two marathoners showed the class of their club ‘Spectrum Runners’.

Finishing behind Abella in the women’s division were Maricar Camacho and Jewel De Luna who submitted times of 3:26:19 and 3:27:05, respectively.

Lapiz and Abella, who qualified for the National Finals on December 1 in Cagayan De Oro, talked about how the humidity affected their submitted times which is significantly slower than their respective personal bests.

“I clocked 2:42 but my best time is 2:31. It also depends on your conditioning as well as sporadic weather changes. The weather here in Manila is humid compared to Cebu which is a little humid and cold,” said Lapiz.

“I registered 3:21 today but my personal record is 3:12. The humidity must be the reason why we couldn’t hit our usual times,” said Abella.

Meanwhile, 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Christine Hallasgo topped the women’s class of the 21k category where she logged 1:24:27.

Richard Salano, on the other hand, ruled the men’s side of the same distance with a time of 1:08:38.

In the 10K category, James Orduna finished first in the men’s division by registering 0:32:23 as Anisha Caluya emerged champion in the women’s class with her 0:48:03.

Noli Torre (0:16:18) topped the men’s 5K class as Sheila Moreno (0:22:08) did the same in the women’s division.

Robi Rosadia (0:12:15) finished ahead of everyone in the men’s 3k division while Megan Palad (0:14:14) got the gold in the women’s side.

In the shortest distance (1K), Ron Valenzuela (0:03:36) ruled the men’s side as Christine Galicia (0:04:19) stamped her class in the women’s division.