Bulauitan queen of the tracks

Lerma Bulauitan, the long jump queen, also crowned herself sprint queen of the 2002 Milo National Open Sering Cup Track and Field Championship, providing the glitter in an otherwise gloomy showing of the hometown bets yesterday in the multi-nation event at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

Bucking strong winds in the venue, Bulauitan, 27, pulled the rug from under 2001 Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games century dash silver medalist Orranut Klomdee of Thailand, winning the event in 11.86 seconds.

Klomdee settled for the silver medal with a time of 11.91 while Sri Lankan Chaturangani clocked 12.34 for the bronze.

"Malakas iyung hangin nahirapan ako (I had some difficulty because the winds were strong),"said Bulauitan in her failed bid to get near the 11.28 mark made by former track superstar Lydia de Vega-Mercado during the 1987 Jakarta SEA Games.

The other local bets saw their own bid blown off and gone with the wind.

Thai runner Sitichai Suwonprateep emerged the sprint king, clocking 10.54 to beat teammates Reanchai Seeharwong (10.68) and Kongdeeh Natenee (10.69).

RP team mainstay Jimar Aing ended up sixth with a time of 11.13, finishing behind Papua New Guinea’s Peter Pulu (10.70) and another Thai bet Vissanu Sophanich (10.71).

Also settling for crumbs against foreign rivals were Percela Molina in women’s triple jump and Rodrigo Tanuan and Aing in 400m run.

Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Hong Anh topped the women’s triple jump with Molina taking first runner-up honors.

Jeffrey Bai of Papua New Guinea ruled the 400m run with Tanuan and Aing coming behind him.

Jonah Genilza won an all-Filipina battle for the women’s 400m. She clocked 57.50 to top Rowena Miranda of VMUF (1:00.04) and Jea Ann Secreteo (1:01.35).