By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Fil-Morrocan Yacine Guermali surpassed another Philippine record when he finished second in the men’s 1500 meters in the Portland Distance Carnival race in Oregon over the weekend.
Guermali, whose mother Juliet is related to former Eagle of the Mountain winner Domingo Quilban of Nueva Vizcaya, timed 3 minutes and 43.59 seconds to eclipse the 3:47.65 national mark of Mervin Guarte.
Guate posted the national mark during the 2011 Palembang Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.
American Caleb Webb timed 3:42.57 to top the event.
Guermali’s time was even faster than the SEA Games mark of 4:06.63 which Vietnamese Durong Van Thai registered two years ago.
Guermali had earlier bettered the 1500m record of Eduardo Buenavista at the Oregon Relays last month.
A junior at Gonzaga University, the 21-year-old Guermali has committed to race for the national team in this year’s SEAG in Vietnam and other future events.
He was set to join the 2019 biennial meet but was hampered with injuries.
