{"id":29995,"date":"2014-03-17T11:03:45","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T03:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tribune.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=29995"},"modified":"2014-03-17T11:03:45","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T03:03:45","slug":"bucher-hugo-draw-first-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bucher-hugo-draw-first-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucher, Hugo draw first blood"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"South<\/a>
South Africa?s Dan Hugo and Switzerland?s Renata Bucher pose for a photo after racing in XTERRA Philippines in Cebu last Saturday. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seven-time XTERRA Saipan winner Renata Bucher surprised herself and her rivals in the kickoff of the XTERRA Asia Triple Crown after winning last Saturday\u2019s 2014 XTERRA Philippines in Lilo-an, Cebu.
\n\u201cI was not expecting to win this race,\u201d said Bucher, who clinched the women\u2019s title after completing the 1.5-kilometer swim, 36K bike, and 10K run in 3:24:59.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore coming to the Philippines I raced in New Zealand, the longest XTERRA race on the circuit. It took me 4:38:00 to finish and I came out at second place. So when I went to the Philippines, I was not fresh at all. I was nervous going into last Saturday\u2019s race,\u201d said Bucher.<\/p>\n

However, there was no trace of fatigue when the \u201cSwiss Miss\u201d started the race, as she even finished the two-loop swim leg ahead of Jacqui Slack, who is recognized as a better swimmer than the former. Bucher timed in at 23:48 to lead Austria\u2019 Carina Wasle (24:08), former Saipan pro Mieko Carey (23:24), Slack (22:08), Dimity-Lee Duke (24:59), and Darrelle Parker (25:27).
\nAhead by less than a minute against the diminutive but determined Wasle, Bucher gained more distance over her closest pursuer in the two-loop bike race, as the Swiss pro submitted 2:03:31, the fastest among the women\u2019s pro. Wasle recorded a field-third best with her 2:08:48, just several seconds behind the 2:08:03 of Slack.<\/p>\n

Wasle, who had a bad crash in the 2013 race and did not finish XTERRA Philippines, then caught up with Bucher past the halfway mark of the up-and-down run course. However, Wasle failed to keep her distance and settled for a bridesmaid finish, as the exhausted Austrian pro hobbled and nearly fainted in the last 300 meters of the race, according to organizers.<\/p>\n

Wasle finished less than a minute behind Bucher after timing in at 3:25:18. Carey rounded out the Top 3 after registering 3:27:34, while Slack, the defending XTERRA Saipan champion, had another fourth place finish in the Philippines with her 3:29:19.<\/p>\n

Bucher attributed her good start in XTERRA Asia\u2019s Triple Crown to nice pacing.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday (last Saturday), I paced myself. The course was hard and it was very hot, so some participants fainted. I am happy, I made it through. I hydrated well and had good nutrition and there really helped a lot,\u201d said Bucher, who is looking forward to XTERRA Saipan, the last stop of the trifecta. XTERRA Guam will be the second leg (March 29) of the Asian Triple Crown.<\/p>\n

Bucher bagged her second XTERRA Philippines title in three years. She was runner-up to Leslie Paterson last year.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s division, XTERRA Philippines has a new champion in South Africa\u2019s Dan Hugo, who defeated compatriot Bradley Weiss and erstwhile champion Ben Allen of Australia.<\/p>\n

Hugo completed the grueling race in 2:48:48, wrestling the lead from Allen in the bike leg, as the Australian was slowed down by a crash and a couple of flat tires. Hugo clocked in at 19:56 and was third out of the water in the men\u2019s pro behind Allen (18:57) and Weiss (19:51). In the bike leg, the XTERRA Saipan runner-up finished more than 20 minutes ahead of Allen, timing in at 1:43:26 against the later\u2019s 2:11:17. Weiss posted 1:50:37 to move up to second place. A men\u2019s pro-field best 45:26 in the run leg secured Hugo\u2019s victory, as crossed the finish line about eight minutes ahead of Weiss (2:56:39) and more than 30 minutes ahead of Allen (3:21:52). Guam\u2019s Charlie Epperson (3:30:07) and Malaysia\u2019s Shahrom Abdullah (3:32:58) rounded out the Top 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven-time XTERRA Saipan winner Renata Bucher surprised herself and her rivals in the kickoff of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":30010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[195,165,63,407],"class_list":["post-29995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-new-zealand","tag-philippines","tag-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}