Off road specialist Jessie Ano and fellow extreme running enthusiast Pepito Diapera showed why they belong to the country’s small but elite ultra-marathoners in the country as they posted a 1-2 finish on Sunday in The North Face Thrill of the Trail 22K competition inside the 1,750-hectare Nuvali complex in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Ano negotiated the all-terrain trail that included two kilometers of river running and rappelling to submit a course-best of one hour, 30 minutes and 14 seconds followed by Diapera’s 1:36:50, which was just nine seconds better than the clocking submitted by arm amputee Isidro Vildisola of the Philippine Skyrunning Association.

“Mahirap ang course, pero sanay na tayo diyan," said Ano, who like his fellow extreme running friends are more attuned to running in multi-terrain race.

Winners in the men’s division, second-placer Pepito Diapera (2nd from left), champion Jessie Ano (center), and third-placer Isidro Vildosola (2nd from right). GMANews.TV Ano also won last year’s Botak Paa-Tibayan 100K extreme endurance run that started and ended inside UP Diliman, where Diapera placed third.

Diapera and Vildisola are not new to endurance races, too, as they finished second and third, respectively, behind winner Ed Villanueva in the TNF 100 in Sacobia, Clark last year.

Mery Go (2:31:24) topped the women’s category of the 22K event while Pen Nepomuceno (2:36:30) and Normita Adaza (2:41:00) finished at second and third, respectively.

In the 11k event, Ronaldo Salgado (47:11) stamped his class over Angelo Gonzalo (47:31) and Mark Neil Peralta (48:05) in the men’s category while Genevieve dela Peña (1:08:24) outlasted Tatax Almoro (1:08:31) and Lakambini Larocque (1:10:00) in the distaff side.

Meanwhile, the pair of Natasha and Chad Davis topped the 11k Male-Female couple race with their 1:18:30 while Roel Ano and Hernandito Pineda (1:06:39) bagged the honors in the Both Male category and Ayessa Polias and Jocelyn Elpedis (1:50:00) won the 11-K Female-Female event. – Perry Legaspi, GMANews.TV