Ariana Domitorio
KUCHING: They say good things come in small packages.
That is a perfect description for Ariana Domitorio.
Standing just 1.55m and weighing 45kg, the Philippines national and Asia Mountainbike Series women’s XCO overall champion is the face of the future for women’s mountainbiking in Southeast Asia.
The 21-year-old Manila resident has been in the sport since she was 10 years old.
She has had sponsors since her teenage years. She is currently one of riders sponsored by US bike brand Specialized.
After her first race at the age of 12, she started getting serious with the sport along with her father Donjie Domitorio, who is now a Philippine team coach.
“It was just a hobby and I never thought of it as a career choice,” said Domitorio.
That changed after she graduated from high school at 16.
“We decided that I would forego college and try to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics,” said Domitorio.
It meant that at 16, she became a professional cyclist and started training everyday with her father as coach.
“We grew up in the sport together.”
She first hit the spotlight in regional circles when she won the 2014 ASEAN MTB Cup’s junior women’s XCO in Kundasang, Sabah.
It was also the site where Sarawak’s Garry Tay, then riding for Team Corbusier, and Norismiza Azeman of Team Viking became UCI Malaysian junior men and women champions.
The conditions were so torrid that only five riders lined up at the start and ended with only Domitorio and Norismiza finishing the race.
“Kundasang was really cold and it was my first race abroad,” Domitorio recalled.
“As a junior, it felt really exciting as I did not know what to expect.”
Today she is a veteran of such forays which has seen her UCI ranking jump from 500-plus to 131.
At the Siol race, she was part of a big squad of 14 riders.
Siol was kind to the team which saw them grab a fistful of medals.
The eldest of four girls, she is pleased to see her sisters Lexi, aged nine, and six-year-old Aeric – the youngest of the siblings – following in her footsteps.
“We have to start them young, you know,” she quipped.
When she was 19, she also did road racing, competing in three three-day stage races and several criteriums. Incredibly, she won all three mutliple-day events.
That year she also had a full season in mountain bike events.
“I was quite burnt out after that, so I decided to just concentrate on mountainbiking,” she admitted.
She won her first senior national title at Cebu in June, having DNF in 2016 after a bad crash.
Her training regime can only be described as intense with each day starting with a 9a.m. training session and another one in the afternoon.
“We also have gym workouts two or three times a week.”
She refuses to think if she has a particularly strong skill.
“Mountainbiking requires an all-round ability, so we have to be good in each area,” she said.
With Tokyo some three years away, Domitorio is raising her game to get there.
“I have to double up on the training and work really hard. There are very strong riders from Japan and China.”
The Asia Mountainbike Series is also due to expand to nine events in 2018 which will hopefully help her get the needed points to realize her Olympic dreams.
Mountain bike fans can be sure they will be hearing more from this speedy Filipina.