PUTRAJAYA, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- 2025 Thailand SEA Games duathlon medallist Gavin Sim Wee Hon capped his POWERMAN Malaysia debut in style by clinching the men’s POWERMAN Classic - Elite title here today.
The 23-year-old Malaysian, who works as an accountant, clocked 1 hour 18 minutes and 49 seconds (s) after completing the shortened duathlon event comprising a 5-kilometre (km) run, 30km cycling and another 5km run.
He finished ahead of Indonesia’s Sedilta Pilon Nubatonis, who was second in 1:21.02s, while another Malaysian, Martyn Lim, was third in 1:21.35s.
The distance was halved from the usual 10km-60km-10km format due to the prevailing haze conditions.
Gavin, who only resumed running about a month and a half ago after suffering a stress reaction following the Gold Coast Marathon in Australia in July, said he did not expect to emerge triumphant against a strong international field featuring athletes from Indonesia and the Philippines.
"Quite happy with my performance. Nothing better than winning and, at the same time, it's just nice to be racing in front of the home crowd. (It’s a) Home race, and these are roads that I'm familiar with. The atmosphere was just great.
“I actually had a stress reaction from the half-marathon event at the Gold Coast Marathon. After I finished the race, I couldn't walk for two weeks, and then it was a slow recovery back to running again. So I probably didn't run for about maybe a month and a half," he told Bernama.
Gavin also backed the decision to shorten the race here due to the haze, saying health should take precedence despite the significance of winning his first POWERMAN Malaysia title.
Meanwhile, national athlete Esther Joy Chen defended her women’s POWERMAN Classic - Elite title for the second consecutive year after clocking 1:31.05s.
Indonesian Eva Desiana finished second in 1:36.15s while Malaysia’s Cindy Yea Zhen Sui completed the podium in 1:37.34s.
Esther admitted the shortened race was not the full-distance workout she had hoped for, but still viewed it as a useful warm-up for her full marathon debut at the Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon, scheduled for Oct 3-4.
“I was hoping to do the full distance, but because of the haze, I'm still quite happy that we all got to race and it was still quite fun,” she said.
-- BERNAMA
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