By Jerome Lagunzad
ILAGAN CITY – National team standouts, led by reigning two-time Southeast Asian Games gold medallist Trenten Beram, brace themselves for a possible tough resistance from local and foreign counterparts as the 2018 Ayala Philippine Athletics Championships gets going on Thursday at the sprawling Ilagan Sports Complex here.
The 22-year-old Filipino-American star is expected to hog a lion’s share of the spotlight as he leads the stellar cast of protagonists vying for the men’s 400m title, one of the first 14 out of 150 total golds at stake right on the opening day.
Out to foil the lofty bid of Beram, who claimed the 400m and 200m titles in last year’s SEAG in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, are perennial contenders such as University of Baguio’s Joan Caido and the Philippine Airforce duo of Edgardo Alejan Jr. and Ryan Bigyan.
Former national team mainstay Christopher Ulboc, a two-time SEAG gold medal winner in the men’s 3000m steeplechase, should be eager to flash his sharp form of old in his favorite event against some unheralded local rivals.
In the afternoon session, all eyes will be on reigning SEA Games decathlon king Aries Toledo as he vies for the men’s long jump title against the likes of hometown bet and national team member Julian Reem Fuentes and Run Rio-University of the Philippines’ Janry Ubas.
Meanwhile, the hostilities will formally begin at 5 a.m. with the women’s 10,000m run followed by the men’s shot-put and women’s high jump events at 6 a.m.
Also determined to stamp his class in the country’s most prestigious track and field competitions presented by the City of Ilagan and sponsored by Ayala Corporation, Milo and the Philippine Sports Commission is two-time Olympian Eric Cray.
The Texas-based Cray, 29, once hailed as the fastest man in Southeast Asia, is already in this sun-baked city and should be at his prime condition since he registered for three big events such as the men’s 200m, 400m hurdles and 4×100 relay.
“We expect our athletes to match or break their personal and season bests. To make it more enticing, incentives of P20,000 to P100,000 await athletes who can shatter Philippine records,” said Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association of the Philippines (Patafa) president Dr. Philip Ella Juico.
It’s easier said than done, however, since the touted national athletes could be in for a tough grind against their equally formidable rivals from the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Sabah, who are using the five-day meet as a tuneup for the 18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships set from June 7 to 10 in Gifu, Japan.
“It is already hot in Gifu, so this is a perfect training ground for these visitors, who I am sure, will be going all out to test their own mettle for the coming Asian Juniors,” added Juico.
Highlighting the second edition of the trackfest, which used to be known as the National Athletics Open, is the Masters’ Competition.
