By MARK REY MONTEJO
Long jumper Janry Ubas failed in his bid to secure an Olympic berth but consoled himself with a gold medal performance in the 2024 Silk Road to Olympic in Tashkent, Uzbekistan over the weekend.
Ubas, 30, poured his all and leapt 7.85 meters to beat out Hong Kong’s Ming Tai Chan (7.75) and Kyrgyzstan’s Timur Isakov (7.42) for the gold.
He also outshone the six other hometown bets.
Though he did not make it to the Paris Olympics, Ubas still considered his performance very satisfactory owing to his podium finishes in Taiwan, Thailand and Kazakhstan meets.
Ubas needed to make the qualifying mark of 8.27m to earn an outright Olympic slot. His 1,179 points was good only for 44th place in World Athletics’ Road to Paris list.
Only those in the top 32 can qualify to the Paris Games.
Currently, EJ Obiena is the country’s lone bet for athletics although hurdlers Lauren Hoffman and John Cabang Tolentino have very good chances of making to Paris.
