Buenavista, Torres leave for World athletics meet

Eduardo Buenavista and Marestella Torres leave for Helsinki, Finland on Saturday for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics as part of their international exposure for the Southeast Asian Games this November.

Buenavista, the long distance specialist who is the defending SEA Games champion in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, is practically the smallest, at 5-foot-2, to answer the gun in the 5,000 run against the best runners in the world on Aug. 10.

Torres, who successfully emerged from the shadows of the legendary Elma Muros-Posadas and the more veteran Lerma Bulauitan-Gabito with two long jump golds and a bronze in the recent Asian Grand Prix, takes a crack at a possible breakthrough on Aug. 9.

"The field here is very strong, and seems too much even for our Filipino athletes. But looking at the recent track records of Buenavista and Torres, I am not discounting a big surprise, or two," said Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association president Go Teng Kok who is already in Helsinki attending important IAAF meetings.

Meanwhile, Cristabel Martes, who ran the 42.195-kilometer Manila Marathon in two hours 38 minutes and 44 seconds, may have already booked for herself a slot in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"I asked around, and found out that Cristabel just barely missed the Olympic A standard of 2:37.00, but surpassed the B standard of 2:42.00. Now all we need is some official confirmations."

PATAFA sec-gen Benjamin Silva-Netto said the Manila Marathon route will be re-measured soon as required by the IAAF, to determine if Martes had indeed passed the Olympic B grade.

But he already expressed optimism that the Manila Marathon had met the requirements, making Martes the official new Philippine record-holder. The 24-year-old Baguio City native already owns the RP mark of 2:45.48 she set in the 2002 Standard Charter Marathon in Hong Kong.