News & Racing

Ironman VR Team Challenge Enters The Final Week Of Showcasing The Asia Pacific Region

Team Sam Sakai clinches the second week of competition in the Asia Pacific portion of the IRONMAN VR Team Challenge; Team Ines Santiago in second and Team Melissa Urie in third place.

Shawn Smith

Shawn Smith

— 2 min read
Ironman VR Team Challenge Enters The Final Week Of Showcasing The Asia Pacific Region

Asia Team Captains include Sam Sakai, an IRONMAN U Coach and Japan Community Manager of IRONMAN Asia. Sam is a strong advocate for endurance triathlon in Japan and finisher of multiple races across Asia, including the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship. Ines Santiago from the Philippines is a mother of 2 and owns a garment manufacturing and retail company that specializes in hand-smocking and hand embroidery. She is a multiple podium finisher at IRONMAN 70.3 races in Asia. Representing Australia, Melissa Urie, a mental health nurse from Melbourne, Australia, who is an accomplished competitor in Ultra Triathlon, IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 events. She is also a mental health nurse and is an avid triathlete who has competed in several multisport events in Australia. These captains are tasked with forming a duo or trio of athletes to join them each week for the competition scoring.

After two weeks of competition we have a tie atop the leaderboard in our Asia Pacific IROONMAN VR Team Challenge.

This week’s athletes include:

Team Sam Sakai

  • Genjiro-Gen Wakayama is a 4-time IRONMAN World Championship finisher and a 2-time IRONMAN 70.3 Japan podium finisher.
  • Kazuki-Kazu Kubono the fastest Japanese athlete in the 2019 IRONMAN World Championship.
  • Emi Sakai, Sam’s wife, is a 7-time finisher at IRONMAN World Championship as a professional triathlete. She is now retired and continues to train together with Sam.

Team Ines Santiago

  • Ani De Leon Brown, also known as Coach Ani amongst the triathletes in the Philippines is a 46-year-old mother of two and is the coach of the National Triathlon Team and the Race Director of IRONKIDS Philippines. Not only is she a multiple-time of IRONMAN finisher across the Asia Pacific region, but Ani is the first-ever Filipina to have qualified for the IRONMAN World Championship in 2008 and has also led the biggest female represented contingent as well.
  • Jael Wenceslao is an avid runner and has multiple Abbott World Marathon Major races across his portfolio of achievements. The 40-year-old is also an accomplished ultramarathoner who holds a personal best of completing a marathon in 3:01 hours.

Team Melissa Urie

  • Ruth Bloom, a multi-time IRONMAN finisher and an ambassador athlete for IRONMUMs, a community supporting mothers who participate in IRONMAN events, will take on both the run and bike this week.

Weekly Schedule
Friday, May 21
•   7:00 a.m. GMT+8 / 9:00 a.m. AEST (7:00 p.m. ET) – Asia Pacific Week 3: Half distance duathlon

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