‘I was able to speak Tagalog last time. Now, I can just understand it.’
Filipino-Singaporean Marc Louis (middle) zooms to the finish line of the men’s 100-meter dash in the ICTSI Philippine Athlerics Championships in Tarlac.
Photograph by Joey Sanchez Mendoza for the daily tribune @tribunephl_joey
CAPAS, Tarlac — Filipino-Singaporean speedster Marc Louis emerged the fastest runner in the men’s 100-meter event after clocking in 10.45 second in the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships at the New Clark City Stadium Friday evening.
But the win was more than just getting the gold medal, he was able to win near the hometown of his Filipina mother Julie Ann Adsuara, who was cheering him on.
After taking a photo with his teammate Daryl Tan, who got third place with a time of 10.62 seconds, the 22-year-old sprinter gamely spoke with the media and even showed off a bit of Filipino while talking.
“Opo (Yes),” Louis said with a smile when asked if he was half Filipino.
Louis, 22, had vivid memories of his time when he was in Moncada, which is an hour-long drive from New Clark City, when he was a child and even said he was fluent in Filipino back then.
“My mom’s from Tarlac. I’m from Singapore but I stayed here for one to two years back then,” Louis said.
“I was able to speak Tagalog last time. Now, I can just understand it.”
Previously winning the gold in the Singapore Open last April in the same event, Louis said going up against fast opponents helps him out as he guns for a gold medal in the 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand from 9 to 20 December.
“It is just the start of the outdoor competition, so this race against strong runners is just what I need,” Louis said.
Meanwhile, Jessica Laurance of Pinoy Athletics redeemed herself from her silver medal finish in the women’s 200m after winning the women’s 100m event.
Even without Kristina Knott, who reportedly pulled out of the event after suffering a bad fall in the women’s 200m last Thursday, Lawrence ran with all her might as she hung on to the lead to finish with 11.46 seconds.
Still, the Filipino-Aussie sprinter from Sydney admitted she would have loved to test herself against Knott to determine who is the tournament’s sprint queen.
“I wish she (Knott) had been in the race. It would have been really good for us together pushing each other,” Laurance said.
“But I believe I ran well for myself. I didn’t have a good start but I executed well overall.”
As for other top performers, William Morrison dominated the men’s shot put with 18.81m while Elijah Cole won the men’s pole vault after going over 5.25m.
National team member Ronnie Malipay topped the men’s triple jump with a leap of 15.77 meters while Jeanne Ambal of University of Santo Tomas took the women’s crown with a jump of 12.44m.
Anthony Cariaso of the University of the East took advantage of the absence of distance runner Yacine Guermali and triumphed in the men’s 1,500m race with four minutes and 04.86 seconds, while Far Eastern University’s Susan Ramadan did the same in the women’s division with a time of 4:40.80.
Olympic hurdler John Cabang, heptathlete Sarah Dequinan, and runner Frederick Ramirez are competing at press time.
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