JAPAN won six of nine gold medals at stake in the 2026 NTT Asia Triathlon Para Championship in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone Sunday.
The event was converted to duathlon (2.5-km run, 20-km bike and 5-km run) after prolonged heavy rains made the water conditions in Subic Bay unsafe.
Keiichi Sato clocked one hour, one minute and eight seconds and Takumi Ando finished in 1:03:56 for a 1-2 Japanese finish with Uzbekistan’s Bakhtiyor Murtazayev (1:05:01) clinching bronze in the men’s PTS5 (mild impairment) race that started and ended at Waterfront Road.
‘My weak point is swimming. I like running and biking so this is advantage for me,’ said the 47-year-old Sato, who hails from Nagoya which will host the 20th Asian Games.
‘I plan to join more tournaments to qualify for the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics, that is my goal,’ added Sato, who placed 11th at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
The other Japanese gold medalists in the tournament organized by Triathlon Philippines in cooperation with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority were Yukako Hata (women’s PTS2), Masaki Fujita (men’s PTS3), Hideki Uda (men’s PTS4), Ryota Kashiki (men’s PT Visually Impaired) and Shiori Funamizu (women’s PT Wheelchair).
Uzbekistan’s Rustamjan Satiboldiyev (men’s PTS2) and Shokhsanam Sobirjonova (women’s PTS5) and Kyrgysztan’s Guinaz Zhuzbaeva (women’s PT Visually Impaired) also topped their respective categories.
The Philippines’s Alex Silverio clinched the bronze medal in the Men’s PTS4 contest.