Salem triumphs in tight finish

PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines — Satar Salem delivered a performance for the ages to capture the men’s overall individual crown, edging Chinese Junyu Cao via the slimmest of margins – 04:22:25-04:23:13 – even as Leyann Ramo completed Tri SND Barracuda’s domination of individual honors by ruling the women’s side in the IRONMAN 70.3 Puerto Princesa here yesterday.

Coming in second to Dutch Eric van der Linden after the swim but almost a minute ahead of Cao, Salem remained in that spot after the bike as Linden stayed in control. But the 2022 Sun Life 5150 champ in Bohol poured it all out in the run, wearing down Linden while holding off Cao’s stretch-run charge in one of closest results in IRONMAN Philippines staging.

Salem, who toiled for the whole season to prime up and get a crack at this crown, clocked 29:08 in swim, 02:22:31 in bike before winding up with 01:26:40 in run for an overall time of 04:22:25 as he bested last year winner John Alcala’s clocking of 04:32:20 in the grueling 1.9km swim, 90km bike, and 21.1km run race held under overcast skies.

Cao timed 30:04 in swim, gained on Salem in bike in 02:21:40 but came up short in the closing leg with a 01:26:39 clocking for an overall time of 04:23:13.