SUBIC — David Mora and Alaina Bouffaut delivered standout performances to headline a day of grit, growth and glory at the RLC Residences IRONKIDS on Saturday here, emerging as champions in the centerpiece 13-15 age group and marking strong first strides in their budding multisport journeys.
Mora imposed his dominance early, clocking the fastest swim time of three minutes and 17 seconds in the 250-meter swim, then kept his momentum despite briefly trailing Johan Marcelo in the 6-kilometer bike leg (10:34). He surged back in the run with a blistering 07:00 split to clinch the crown with a total time of 22:32.
Marcelo, who swam in 03:22 and took the lead in the bike with a 10:28 effort, couldn’t hold off Mora’s closing run and settled for second in 23:32. Ralf Prima took third with splits of 03:30-11:11-07:15 for a 23:49 finish in the event presented by RLC Residences and organized by Sunrise Events Inc.
On the girls’ side, Bouffaut overcame a slow start in the swim (04:39) by unleashing a strong 11:28 ride and holding on with an 08:44 run to narrowly edge out Kaia Gica, 26:51 to 27:45. Gica opened fast (04:33 swim) but faltered on the bike (12:38) and couldn’t close the gap despite an 08:32 run. Dominique Aragones rounded out the podium in 29:01.
In the boys’ 11-12 division, Phil Alexander Cayetano put on a well-balanced effort, timing 03:01 in swim, 08:04 in bike, and 06:16 in run to claim the title in 19:11 in the event which served as a prelude to the Century Tuna IRONMAN 70.3 Subic Bay firing off Sunday.
Chris Lacuna (20:12) placed second, while Kai Takei, despite a leading 02:57 swim, slipped to third in 20:37.
Elise Salas turned in the day’s most dramatic comeback in the girls’ 11-12 group.
After trailing in the swim (04:13) and biking (09:00), she unleashed a powerful 06:45 run to seize the win in 22:16. Julia Selene Calustre (22:47) and Alandria Venice Delantar (22:49), who led early, settled for second and third, respectively.
In the 9–10 age group contested over a 150m swim, 4km bike, and 1.5km run, Jon David Julian and Oliver Kurt Alingarog shared top honors after finishing with identical total times of 19:33.