The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association won’t rest on its achievements in 2019 as it ramps up its preparations to send more athletes to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
PATAFA president Philip Juico said this on the heels of another successful year that sent the first Filipino qualifier to the Tokyo games, shattered several records and netted 11 golds, eight silvers, and the same number of bronze medals for the national sports association of athletics in the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the New Clark City Athletic Stadium in Capas, Tarlac.
Pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena qualified for the Olympics when he cleared 5.81 meters during the Street Meet in Chiara, Italy last September. He capped his season with a new record of 5.45 meters for the gold in the Southeast Asian Games.
“We have more work to do. I think there will be more qualifiers from athletics,” said Juico, citing trackster Kristina Knott, shot putter William Morrison, and hurdles’ king Eric Cray.
Knott won two golds in the SEAG in the 200 meters and 4×100-meter mixed relay. Her 23.07 seconds, a new SEAG record in the 200 meters, is very near the Olympic qualifying time of 22.08.
Morrison, on the other hand, also set a new games’ record of 18.38 in the shot put event of the SEAG.
“Morrison is a candidate for the Olympics. Kaya niya because he is throwing the metal ball at the 20-meter range,” said Juico of Morrison’s marks, which is near the 21.1 Olympic standard. “Hopefully, Cray will make it, too.”
Juico is upbeat of the coming year following the national track and field team’s scintillating show in the SEAG with a haul of 11 golds, eight silvers, and eight bronze medals – PATAFA’s biggest harvest in the biennial meet since an 11-11-8 tally during Gintong Alay in the 1983 edition in Singapore.
Several records in athletics were set in the passing year, four of which were achieved in the SEA Games – the pole-vault leaps of Obiena and Natalie Uy, Knott’s 200-meter run, and Morrison’s throw.
