Tracksters get litmus test

During the test games, I expect our athletes to be smart enough to get a good feel of their opponents’ real worth.

ERIC Cray will be back to defend his 100-meter crown.

The test event in athletics on 26 and 27 October at the New Clark City (NCC) is expected to show the Filipino tracksters’ readiness for the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

A 72-member Philippine athletics’ team will measure its mettle against entries from Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam in the 20,000-seat athletics’ stadium inside the sprawling 9,500-hectare NCC sports complex.

“During the test games, I expect our athletes to be smart enough to get a good feel of their opponents’ real worth and how much more they have to do during the actual SEA Games,” Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association president Philip Juico said.

Twenty four of the total 48 athletics’ events in the SEA Games will be played in the test events, each having 15 participants to ensure competitiveness.

Of the 46 golds in the SEAG, the athletics’ contingent will aspire for 13 golds.

“I used the word aspiring, not targeting, because that is what we have inculcated in our athletes’ minds from the time we form the national training pool and the moment they started training,” Juico said.

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William Ramirez said the test tournament would give the Filipino athletes additional boost and exposure before the actual SEA Games competitions.

“Our athletes need all the exposures they could get to take the pressures off them. It’s part of the process to make them familiar with the competition. That’s why the PSC has been supportive of their foreign stints and training,” Ramirez said.

Leading the charge for the hosts is pole-vaulter Ernest John Obiena, the Philippines’ first-ever qualifier to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on the strength of his gold-medal winning 5.81-meter leap in a Chiara, Italy tournament last 3 September.

High hopes are also pinned on Filipino-American bets Kristina Knott and Zion Corrales-Nelson, who are expected to crowd Vietnamese champion Le Thunh Chinh for the 100-meter and 200-meter dash crowns.

Knott, who is preparing in the United States, already has a better time of 11.42 seconds during the Asian Grand Prix’s 100-meter event and 23.62 seconds in the Philippine National Open 200 meters.

Corrales-Nelson also bettered the SEA Games mark with a good time of 11.41 seconds in a US National Collegiate Athletic Association meet early this year.

Joining them in the men’s division are sprinters Eric Cray and Anfernee Lopena in the 100-meter dash, alongside Michael del Prado and Jayme Sequito (400 meters), Carter Lilly and Marco Vilog (800 meters), Mariano Masano and Said Guermali (1500 meters), Clinton Bautista and Alvin Vergel (100-meter hurdles) and Francis Medina (400-meter hurdles).

In the 100-meter relays are Cray, Bautista, Yuher Go, Jomar Udtohan and Vince Buhayan while Sequito is in the 400-meter relays with Del Prado, Udtohan, Edgardo Alejan, Frederick Ramirez and Reymond Alferos.

In the women’s division are Kayla Richardson (400 meters), Marisol Amargo (800 meters), Melissa Escoton and Jely Paraguile (100-meter hurdles), along with Robyn Brown, Bernalyn Bejoy(400-meter hurdles), Joida Gagnao (3000-meter steeplechase) and pole vaulters Alyanna Nicolas and Natalie Uy.

The team of Nelson, Knott, Kayla and Kyla Richardson are in the 100-meter relay team, with Eloisa Luzon and Escoton. Jessel Lumapas and Maureen Schrijvers are part of the 400-meter relay squad.