Quirimit wins 7th stage of Tour of the Philippines

SAN JOSE CITY, Philippines (Agencies): Arnel Quirimit of the Philippines national team led the way home for breakaway partner Carlo Guieb of Northern Luzon to win the 7th stage and moves just 53 seconds behind general classification leader and teammate Warren Davadilla in the Marlboro Centennial Tour of the Philippines '98 yesterday.

The well-built, 24-year-old Quirimit matched the aggressive riding of former two-time champion Guieb in the two hour category 1 mountain-climbing parts of the stage that splintered the field and then sprinted across the finish line half-a-wheel ahead with a time of 5 hours and 16 seconds for the 199.8km drive.

Quirimit, also the winner of the first stage, came close to stripping the yellow jersey of leadership from Davadilla, who needed a tremendous rally in the last 50 kms to barely stay in front by finishing 4:41 behind the two-man lead pack.

Davadilla started the day 5:44 ahead of Quirimit.

Malaysian Hoong Tsen Seong and Pangasinan rookie Santy Barnachea continued to share third overall position, just 5:20 behind, but Gonzalo Espiritu, the Pangasinan team captain, advanced to within 7:51 and Guieb gained almost 5 minutes as he held sixth place, 9:06 off Davadilla.

While Guieb recalled the old form that gave him the 1993 and 1994 overall titles as he conquered the two King of the Mountain runs, defending champion Wong Kam Po of Hong Kong, Tang Xuezhong of China and Philippine team captain Victor Espiritu provided the day's most dramatic moment as they came from deep down in the field to finish together in the second group, just 2:18 behind the two-man lead pack.

Proving a strong team the three made good group and are now all beginning to show their top-class capabilities.

Tang went on to win the three-man dash for third place with Wong placing fourth over Espiritu, the first two stage champion, whose Philippine national team seems focused on victory in the team general classification.

But the three seemed out of the running in the individual race, although the hardest part of the schedule still lies ahead in the three stages finishing in Baguio. Espiritu, the winner in 1996, kept 17th place, 27:04 behind Davadilla. Tang trailed by 28:34 in 18th place and Wong was in 22nd, 32:06 off the overall leader.

The Philippines national team increased its lead position over Pangasinan to 22:25 and to 35:01 over Malaysia. Guieb's Northern Luzon squad advanced to fifth behind Metro Manila while Nueva Ecija dropped to sixth.

China advanced to seventh followed by Southern Luzon, Central Luzon, Hong Kong, Japan, Mindanao and Visayas.

Overall standings

1. Warren Davadilla (Phi) 29:41:14 2. Arnel Quirimit (Phi) 29:42:07 3. Hoong Tsen Seong (Mal) 29:46:31 4. Santy Barnachea (Phi) 29:46:31 5. Gonzalo Espiritu (Phi) 29:49:02 6. Carlo Guieb (Phi) 29:50:17 7. Enrique Domingo (Phi) 29:59:19 8. Frederico Cruz (Phi) 30:01:43 9. Placido Valdez (Phi) 30:02:24 10. Bernard Luzon (Phi) 30:03:19