By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Carlos De Imus bettered the Philippine mark in the men’s 20-kilometer walk after his impressive showing in the Asian Race Walking Championships in Nomi, Japan over the weekend.
The 24-year-old De Imus clocked 1 hour, 30 minutes and 0.03 seconds to break the 15-year-old mark of 1:33:51 set by Michael Embuedo in Lingayen, Pangasinan in 2009.
Not only De Imus’ time was faster than the gold-medal performance of 1:40:42 of Indonesia’s Hendro Yap at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia, but it was also faster than the SEAG record of 1:32:11 also by Yap set at the 2017 SEAG in Malaysia.
The country’s other representative Alana Julianne Halaguena, however, failed to finish in the distaff side.
De Imus was accompanied by coach Saturnino Salazar, another national record holder, and Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) President Terry Capistrano.
This was De Imus’ first international competition this year. He previously competed in the 10,000-meter walk at the Philippine Championships last year, and in the 3,000m walk in the Batang Pinoy-Philippine National Games in 2023.
