MANILA – Ilongga mountain bike rider Ariana Dormitorio continued her reign after ruling the 2019 Yawatahama International Cross Country race last Sunday at the Yawatahama, Japan.
The Ilongga topped the 21.50 kilometer race after submitting a time of one hour, 18 minutes and 18.22 seconds beating Chinese Taipei’s Ya Yu Tsai and Miho Imai of Japan.
Apart from the tournament win, the 22-year-old Dormitorio also earned 60 valuable UCI points to boost her chance of earning a qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan.
Dormitorio said the Japan victory was huge for her as she prepares for the Asian Mountain Bike Continental Championship in Lebanon from July 25 to 28, where an Olympics slot is up for grabs.
“This will be a very crucial year because all of the things that we’ve really worked hard for, eto na ‘yun. Eto na ‘yung final stretch to get there. We’re really looking forward to the Olympic qualifying,” Dormitorio said.
“I’m confident naman din that somehow I really have a fighting chance to win the gold in the upcoming Asian Continental Championship,” added the Ilongga rider.
Dormitorio, who has also trained in the UCI Training Center in Switzerland, will also be competing in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games here, where she is favored to win a gold medal.
“My goal in the SEA Games is to win the gold, and I’m happy that somehow, I am regularly competing against those riders from Southeast Asia, so more or less, I am already very familiar with them,” she said./PN
