CAGAYAN de Oro’s popular rider Jireh Morales Edrote just won this year’s 1st CU Kaliga 1000-Km Team Endurance Ride Challenge in the company of Reggie Lobitana as they made a 1-2 finish in the Mindanao race that started and ended at Da Grove off Route 955 in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental.
The 29-year-old Edrote, who conquered the 1,000-kilometer route across three Mindanao regions in 12 hours and 12 minutes on Feb 4-5, was also expected to finish big in Season 3 of the Diyandi Motourally Endurance Challenge that kicked off on Saturday dawn, August 13 in Iligan City.
But a freak incident around 2 am snapped the life of the youthful Edrote whose driven 1000cc Kawasaki Versys Green apparently overshot a curved stretch in Purok Rizal, Barangay Poblacion, Lugait town, Misamis Oriental, and hit an iron post before overturning to a canal by the roadside.
Edrote, who had a four-year-old son Quian Renz with his wife Mequiann, was still brought to the nearby Manticao municipal hospital where he was declared dead upon arrival due to severe body injuries.
“Jireh was speeding over 100kph along the dimly-lit portion of Lugait road that was known to be accident-prone because it has a short curve that is very dangerous to notice especially at dawn,” said Edrote’s friend Vince.
“His helmet had no scratch and (neither) did his face. But the strong impact caused serious damage to his body,” added Buot.
The annually-held Diyandi Festival Endurance Challenge was supposed to cover Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, and Davao regions before heading back to Iligan City which is geographically located within Lanao del Norte province.
But many of the estimated 500 participants decided to discontinue the race after learning about the incident, as they went back to check on their fallen comrade.
One Raphael Marzan posted on Facebook: “I was expecting him to be the first to arrive (at) the first checkpoint in Cagayan de Oro. I think everybody was expecting to see him first and not the other way around..gone instead with the packs. We lost a great humble guy, not just a friend but a brother to us all.”
Another friend Krizby Marte wrote: “Before Jireh became a real-life superstar racer, he was already a superstar racer in the virtual world. Jireh was one of the top racers in the game called CrazyKart. He has won multiple local championships and even competed on the national stage. Rest in paradise Jireh.”
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