Athletics target better finish in SEA Games
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 15 Jun 2013
MANILA (PNA) -- Reclaiming the glory days their predecessors once enjoyed in the Asian athletics scene is what the Filipino runners, jumpers and throwers are aiming starting with the coming 27th Southeast Asian Games this December in Myanmar.
With young and fresh Filipino-American talents now in the national training pool, national coaches Joseph Sy and Roslyn Jamero yesterday projected that the years when former Asian Sprint Queen Lydia de Vega-Mercado and Middle Distance king Isidro del Prado and hurdler Renato Unso were lording it over their Asian counterparts, won?t be long to realize.
?But first, our immediate concern is in the coming SEA Games where we aim to regain the supremacy we enjoyed in the 80s,? Sy said in yesterday?s SCOOP Sa Kamayan session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura. ?And with the arrival of four Fil-Ams, whom we injected to reinforce our 70-athlete training pool, we in PATAFA (Philippine amateur Track and Field Association) feel we can do it.?
Sy was referring to hurdler Eric Gray, who came all the way from Texas to display his wares in the recent Philippine National Games, Julio Aloro from California and Richardson twins Kayla and Kyla from Los Angeles.
Sy and Jamero attested that Cray?s gold medal clocking of 50.46 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles has already surpassed the gold medal winning time in the last Games two years ago in Indonesia.
?We are still waiting for the POC Philippine Olympic Committee) and the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) criteria that will be used to qualify, but we?re sure Cray as well as Aloro, (a pole vaulter), and the Richardson twins can make it,? Sy said.
Aloro?s personal best 4.91 meters in pole vault also broke the national junior record as well as the 11.79 seconds of Kayla and 11.93 seconds of Kyla, according to Jamero, both in the 100 meters.
Counting the sure gold medal of SEA Games long jump queen Maristela Torres and the possible conversion to gold medals of 2011 silver medalists Henry Dagmil in men?s long jump, Rosito Villarito in women?s javelin, Mervin Guarte in men?s 1500 meters, Chris Bagsit in men?s 400 meters, Narcisa Atienza in women?s heptathlon and Eduardo Buenavista and Eric Panaique in marathon, Sy said this year?s athletic team is capable of bringing home 12 gold medals.
Should the duo?s 12-gold medal predictions come true, that will surpass the all-time best 11 gold medals the De Vega-Mercado led contingent fashioned out in 1981.
Sy explained that Dagmil and Atienza were suffering from separate injuries in 2011, reason why they failed to defend their titles, while Buenavista was still at a loss as to moved to marathon from his then favorite 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
?Si Maris (Torres) , unbeatable pa siya sa long jump, while Dagmil, Atienza and others are now healthy and are expected to take revenge for their respective losses two years ago, Jamero said.
One other possible gold medal event will come from the men?s 4x400 relay squad made up of Bagsit, Edgardo Alejan, Junrey Bano and Julius Nierras. whose silver medal harvest in 2011 was translated to gold after was Which according to Sy was recently awarded the gold medal after the Malaysian winning quartet was tested positive to using illegal substance.
?That raised our two-gold medal performance in 2011 to three,? Sy disclosed.
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