The IDF is ending its Asian tour in the Philippines, where 2 races are held by Carl Sambrano, IDF Board member, and its crew from United Stoked: Keep it high Seaside (23 and 24th of April), And Moon Rock (26-27th April). At the end of the week, the IDF Asian Champions will be crowned!
So today was the first day of Seaside IDF WQS: As usual here in the Philippines, the temperature reached 38 Celsius degrees with a perfect sun, and the freshly repaved asphalt that was done last year allowed some fun training.
The 65 riders from 13 countries that showed up, were given 4 practice runs in the morning. The afternoon started with 2 warm up runs before athletes were given 2 timed runs for the qualifications.
The timed practice runs showed some signs of the domination of Abdil Mahdzan in Luge and Emily Pross in the women category, while Juniors and Open were more tight, but David Lanham from Australia surprised the other riders as it is its second year racing and managed to score the 2nd time. But that was only the practice runs results and the real thing was to happen in the afternoon, after riders where served a nice local meal on track.
After 2 warm up runs, timed qualifications started in the early afternoon.
Finally, Emily Pross, from USA, set the best time in the Women category while Elyssa Mah took 2nd place and Jennifer Schauerte took 3 rd place thanks to a fast first Run. Unfortunately she got injured on the beginning of her second run and might not run the final brackets depending on how fast she will recover during the night.
In the Luge category, nobody could follow the Malaysian supersonic Abdil Mahdzan. Ulrich Becker, from Germany sneaked the 2nd time, 6 seconds behind Abdil and a second ahead of the surprising Taiwanese rider Wei-Ze Chen.
In the Master category, the 3 top riders are set within the same second and we are looking forward to seeing who will be champion here within, Caloy Sambrano ( Philippines), Benjamin Hay (Australia) and Peter Friz Saison (Philippines)
In the Junior category, Riley Young took the best out off Kegie Ando (Phillipines) and Justinne Cayalogue (Philippines).
Mitch Thomson, recent Australian World Cup winner, is on fire and set the fastest times of both first and second runs: He’s been even faster than Luger Abdil Mahdzan and with his 1:26:98 beated the track record of 1:27:350 made by Carlos Paixao in 2018.
Second fastest time was made by Harry Clark from Australia too, followed by Chase Hiller from USA.
Tight racing is expected tomorrow on a track where strategy takes all its meaning between the Omega corner and the last section.
Photography in the article: Miko Montifar
