Sandi Mechi Abahan, the Philippines' elite ultramarathoner, and SEA Games gold medalist once again made the country proud after becoming the champion of the 50K Borneo Trail Classic 2022 held in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia from October 15-16, 2022.
The multi-awarded Igorota athlete who hails from Mountain Province finished 1st place in the Borneo Trail Classic which is the 3rd leg of the Spartan Trail World Championship (STWC) series. She also won the 2nd leg in August in Thailand.
The Borneo Trail Classic is one of 9 stops across the globe under the Spartan Trail World Championship (STWC) 2022. There are 5 distances namely 7K, 10K, 21K, 50K (Trail Run Championship), and 100K (Trail Ultra Championship).
Racers participating in the 50K and 100K will gain the opportunity of competing in the Spartan Trail World Championship - Elite category to compete for prize monies at each race and championship points on a global leaderboard for a grand prize payout.
The Cordilleran Elite Ultramarathoner is set to represent the Philippines in two Obstacle Course Races (OCRs) to be held in Vietnam and Nepal this year.
According to the multi-titled runner, she will head to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on Friday to compete in the 4th leg of the Spartan Trail World Championship (STWC), the world's largest Obstacle Course race to be held on October 23.
Abahan's ability will be tested in the tournament with 20 classic obstacle courses prepared including off-road terrain in mud and water run by athletes, climbing walls, crawling under barbed wire, monkey bars, and more.
Meanwhile, the Igorota trail runner is also preparing for the prestigious World's Highest OCR to be held in Kathmandu, Nepal on November 8 this year.
The athletes will traverse to the base camp of Mount Everest with an altitude of over 5,300 meters or 17, 598 feet above sea level.
The competition is divided into three phases, the first phase is the ascent or climb of team Philippines to the base camp of Mount Everest, the second is the World Record Breaking Obstacle course where the athletes will be subjected to various competitions such as in Cargo net crawl, Balance beam, Low wall, Sandbag carry, Cargo net climb, High wall, Monkey bars, Hanging traverse, Mountain swing and The Wall and the final phase is the individual races downhill starting from base camp until reached they are the Pheriche camp which is 4,300 meters above sea level.
The highest OCR is carried out over fourteen days in the mountains of the highest mountain in the entire world.
Abahan confirmed that she is already prepared for the harsh winter climate in Mt. Everest because she also experienced high altitude racing for the first time in winning the 1st World's Highest OCR and World Record Breaking Challenge at Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania which is already at 5,755 meters elevation level.
The 2019 SEA Games gold medalist also thanked the Philippine Sports Commission and its sponsors for their continuous support of the training.
