Renata tops XTERRA Philippines

Swiss pro Renata Bucher will head to this weekend’s XTERRA Saipan Championship boasting two straight victories.

\Bucher, who reigned supreme in XTERRA Saipan from 2005 to 2010 before losing to U.S. pro Shonny Vanlandingham last year, topped XTERRA Philippines last Sunday with a narrow three-minute lead over United Kingdom’s Jacqui Slack to move a win away from earning a three-feat this month. Bucher completed the race held in Liloan, Cebu, in the southern part of the Philippines, in 2:53:33, while Slack timed in at 2:56:39.

Bucher and Slack were also the Top 2 finishers in the 2012 XTERRA Guam Championship held last March 10, but the former finished the first leg of XTERRA Asia Tour’s Triple Crown way ahead of the latter. Bucher timed in at 2:47:25 against the 3:07:10 of Slack, who led after the swim race, but lost about 10 minutes later due to a wrong bike turn in Guam

In the second leg in the Philippines, Slack was again the first female out of the water at the 21:09 mark, more than two minutes ahead of Bucher, who tallied 23:43. Austria’s Carina Wasle, who finished fourth in the women’s elite division (4:46:17) and third finisher U.K. Pro Darrelle Parker (3:39:44) submitted 23:47 and 26.58 in the 1.5-kilometer swim in the waters off Camotes Sea.

Slack hung on to the lead until the first loop of the 32K bike leg before Bucher wrestled the upper hand at the turn and reached the bike-to-run transition area about five minutes ahead. Bucher completed the two-loop bike race in 1:42:43 against Slack’s 1:50:18. Wasle (3:32:00) almost did not finish the bike leg due to multiple flat tires.

With Wasle, a tough runner, behind in the race, Bucher had only Slack to worry about in the final leg—the 10K run. Slack managed to post the fastest time (women’s) in the run leg at 45:17, but it was not enough to overhaul Bucher’s lead, who timed in just about two minutes (47:07) behind the U.K pro.

With her back-to-back wins this month, Bucher is heavily favored in XTERRA Saipan, which she admitted is her favorite stop.

“I had to wait a full year to come back to my favorite island. I love Saipan,” Bucher wrote in her Facebook account yesterday.

Bucher and other pros who raced in the Philippines are expected to arrive here today.

Meanwhile, in the men’s division, there was also a tight race between Australia’s Ben Allen and Switzerland’s Olivier Marceau. Allen clocked in at 2:30:05 against Marceau’s 2:32:22, to get his second straight win this month, following a victory in XTERRA Guam. The Australian pro (2:29:42) had less than four-minute winning margin against Marceau (2:33:22) in Guam.

Allen led by only about a minute at the end of the swim leg with his 18:20 against Marceau’s 19:22 and created more distance in the bike leg, posting 1:32:19. Marceau had 1:34:17 in the bike and was faster than Allen (39:36) in the run leg with his 38:43, but settled for another runner-up finish, leading to Saipan XTERRA, which the Swiss dominated from 2004 to 2007.