Da Silva, Tan share Ironkids honors

LAPU-LAPU City—Zackary Da Silva and Laureen Lee Tan stood out from a record field of 674 young athletes by bagging the premier division titles in the RLC Residences Ironkids Lapu-Lapu for a fitting prelude to the main event on Sunday.

The biggest turnout in the history of the event underscored the growing popularity of youth multisport and confirmed the growing interest at the grassroots level.

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Da Silva built a slight advantage coming out of the water before sustaining his pace in the run to capture the 250-meter swim, 2-kilometer run aquathlon in 12 minutes and 10 seconds.

He held off Therrence Cañas, who clinched runner-up honors after finishing in identical times of 12:27 with and Hans Samputon.

The victory marked another triumph for Da Silva in the 13-15 age division, further strengthening his hold as one of the leading young talents in the country’s premier youth multisport series, even as Tan likewise relied on a fast start to withstand a late challenge from Henia Go and Niala Limas in the girls’ centerpiece division.

Coming off an impressive campaign in Malaysia, Tan set the tone early with a race-leading 4:08 swim split and never relinquished ground, clocking 13:14 overall. Go settled for second in 13:41, while Limas was third in 14:09.

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While Da Silva and Tan added another significant achievement to their budding careers, the spotlight also fell on the many other young aspirants who competed across the younger age categories.

More than the individual victories, however, the unprecedented 674-athlete field gave the event a deeper significance.

Organized by Sunrise Events, Inc. and sponsored by RLC Residences, the Lapu-Lapu staging established a new benchmark for the country’s premier youth triathlon series and demonstrated the expanding reach of grassroots multisport development.