Regent Aguila, Ironman ink deal

“This is the Crown Jewel of Asia – so expect a gold level and race organization.

Regent Aguila and Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship, through its producer and organizer Sunrise Events, Inc., forged a long-time partnership, ensuring an uninterrupted staging of the premier endurance race that features the world’s leading and rising triathletes the next five years in the sport’s home in Cebu.

With its first sponsorship of Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship already surpassing the event’s past hosting in terms of participation and depth of the field, the two sides have agreed to stage the event until 2022.

The first Regent Aguila Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championship unwraps Sunday at the Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa in Lapu-Lapu City with a record cast of 2,7000 from over 51 countries all set to dispute top honors in various divisions in the challenging 1.9km swim-90km bike-21.2km run event offering a total prize fund of $75,000.

“This is the Crown Jewel of Asia – so expect a gold level and race organization,” said SEI general manager Princess Galura.

“Cebu has also won the most spectator friendly race in the world this year so it will be an experience, not only for this inaugural Regent Aguila Ironman 70.3 but all the way to 2022.”

To ensure a star-studded cast, SEI has assembled a slew of reigning and former world champions plus a horde of upcoming stars ready to topple the current best in the fold.

They include three-time champion Tim Reed, former three-time world champion Craig Alexander, former XTERRA world champion and first Ironman 70.3 Davao titlist Mauricio Mendez, and former Ironman As-Pac winners Tim Van Berkel, Josh Amberger and Braden Currie along with former Ironman South American winner Brent McMahon.