By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
John Cabang Tolentino sprinted his way to a podium finish in record-breaking fashion on Saturday, Feb. 17, in the 11th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships at the Aftab Enghelab Sports Complex in Tehran, Iran.
The 22-year-old Fil-Spaniard clocked 7.64 seconds to claim the men’s 60-meter hurdles bronze medal behind Kazakhstan’s Yefremov David (7.60sec) and China’s Qin Weibo, who clinched gold and silver, respectively.
Pending ratification, Cabang’s feat also erased the 10-year-old Philippine indoor record of 7.86sec set by Fil-American Eric Cray at the UNM Cherry and Silver Invitational in Albuquerque, United States.
Cabang actually eclipsed Cray’s old mark in the heats, where he timed 7.71sec for second place to advance to the final.
It was Cabang’s fifth podium finish this year after joining several tournaments in Spain, Kazakhstan and Sweden since last month.
Meanwhile, Janry Ubas missed the podium and settled for fifth place in the men’s long jump after leaping 7.60 meters on his fifth attempt — a far cry from gold medalist Zhang Mingkun of China’s 7.97m performance.
Japanese Yuto Toriumi and Daiki Oda claimed silver and bronze with 7.89m and 7.76m, respectively.
Cabang and Ubas were the only two Filipino representatives in the said regional event.
