Unvaccinated triathletes will be barred from 70.3 Ironman race in Cebu

The sunrise in the morning of August 11, 2019, before the swim leg of the Ironman triathlon | Gerard Francisco

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines — Unvaccinated athletes will not be allowed to participate in the upcoming 70.3 Ironman Triathlon on August 7, 2022.

This was agreed upon during the first Coordination Meeting of the technical working group at the Waterfront Airport Hotel in Lapu-Lapu City on June 23, 2022.

Patrick Liporada of the Department of Health (DOH)-7, said that they are only encouraging fully vaccinated athletes to participate in the big international race while unvaccinated ones may only join the event next year.

“As much as possible, we ecourage yung fully vaccinated at yung hindi pa mga vaccinated, yung hindi pa pwede, baka hindi nalang po natin pa-joinin ngayon sa next nalang po,” Liporada said.

Unvaccinated athletes will not be allowed, even if the reason why they were not vaccinated was due to allergy or comorbidity.

The organizers of the international race have earlier recommended that unvaccinated athletes may enter the race, as long as they will undergo an RT-PCR test before the event.

However, Liporada said that they will just discuss this at the next coordination meeting.

“Baka meron din pong pagbabago (sa health and safety protocols guidelines) sa next administration,” he added.

Aside from being fully vaccinated, it was also agreed in the meeting that participants should have been boosted, at least once, with COVID-19 vaccines.

This year’s Ironman will start at Mactan Newtown Beach, wherein athletes will pass the newly opened Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway, to Metro Cebu during the bike leg.    /rcg

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