Cebuanos king, queen in Milo manila run

MANILA, Philippines — They came. They saw. They conquered.

All by themselves to represent the Queen City of the South, two Cebuano runners landed in the nation’s capital with no fanfare and took its streets in runaway fashion, emerging as the king and queen of the 2024 National Milo Marathon Manila leg at the Mall of Asia Arena Concert Grounds.

Both blue-collar workers in Cebu, teammates Florendo Lapiz and Lizane Abella of Spectrum Runners were no tourists at the Acropolis in the wee hours of a torrid Sunday by the bay as they worked their tails off through to the finish line of the 42-kilometer full marathon – by their lonesome with no shadow of their peers behind them.

Lapiz, a 33-year-old welder in a shipyard just north of Carcar City, clocked two hours, 42 minutes and 33 seconds to beat his closest foe by more than seven minutes while the 35-year-old Abella, an electronics production operator from Minglanilla, timed 3:21:05, five minutes faster than her bridesmaid.

Salvador Polilio (2:49:54) and Welfred Esporma (2:58:51) were the runners-up in men’s race while Maricar Camacho (3:26:19) and Jewel de Luna (3:27:05) finished second and third, respectively, in the distaff side.

Dominance was an understatement for the Cebuano pair in their Manila conquests and their first Milo championships.

“Pang-apat na karera ko na po ito sa Milo at pangatlo sa 42K, sa awa ng Diyos, nanalo rin,” said Lapiz, who was supposed to just drop his uncle off from his motorcycle to a marathon event in Cebu 10 years ago only to participate as well, and the rest was history.

Lapiz, also a fisherman on his days off, had fourth-place and second-place finishes in the previous Milo races before breaking through, earning the fruit of his hard labor during the pandemic.

Milo, which is celebrating its 60th year in bringing out the champion in every Filipino, returned to action last year albeit with limited races before a full-swing comeback this year with 15 races – including the national finals in Cagayan de Oro in December.

“Kalaban ko sarili ko noon. Kailangan kada araw, nahihigitan ko sarili ko. Hindi ako huminto sa training kasi sabi ko kapag bumalik ang mga karera, mas mabuting handa