Niño Surban. | CDN file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Cebu cyclist Niño Surban will be giving his Olympic dream a try as he competes in the Asian Mountain Bike Continental Championships in Chiang Rai, Thailand.
Surban will be representing the Philippines in the Men’s Elite Cross Country, wherein he could get points to rack up his Olympic chances.
Qualification for the Tokyo 2020 is through the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Olympic Mountainbike Rankings with the cutoff date set for May 28, 2020.
Surban will be joined by Iloilo’s Ariana Dormitorio, who will be competing in the distaff side.
Although the event is slated from February 1 to 5, 2020, Surban will still compete on Tuesday, February 4, 2020.
According to Surban, he and Dormitorio are the only Filipino cyclists in the mountain bike competition because there was a delay in the approval of the budget.
Thus, they had to spend for themselves but they will be refunded when they get back.
Fellow Cebuano and Philcycling vice president Oscar “Boying” Rodriguez is once again helping Surban with his expenses.
It was also Rodriguez who convinced Surban to return to mountain bike competition when Surban was convinced of retiring already about two years ago.
In 2018, Rodriguez, who had always supported him from the start, encouraged him to compete in the Philippine National Games (PNG) which was hosted by Cebu and the Philippine Mountainbike National Championships.
This paved the way for his return to the Philippine team after he bagged gold in both races which qualified him to the 30th SEA Games.
But what really pushed Surban to give his Olympic dreams a shot was when he won silver in the SEA Games.
He may not have the luxury of time with the cutoff set in May but he said it is worth giving it a try. /bmjo