Torres unfazed by towering field

LONDON – The cold statistics indicate that Marestella Torres can’t make the grade in the Olympic long jump competitions with her recent personal best of 6.62 meters.

The world record is 7.50 meters while the Olympic record is 7.42m. The target distance for the 42-member international field is 6.75m although the qualifying distance in London is 6.70 meters.

Even as she never equaled her 6.71m mark the last 10 months, that doesn’t worry Torres a bit.

“That’s the target, and I believe I can make it,’’ said the San Jose, Negros Occidental native.

In any event, one’s personal best may improve or even deteriorate when her turn comes to make three attempts in the event at 7:30 tonight here (2 a.m. Wednesday in Manila) at the Olympic stadium.

Torres’ event will be aired at 2 a.m. Wednesday (Philippine time) on AKTV on IBC13 and Aksyon TV.

“I don’t look at their records,’’ she said.’ When we are all there in the field, anything can happen. You can never tell.”

Probably the Olympic mark may not even be matched this year. The Olympic norm has never been surpassed since American star Jackie-Kersee Joyner established it in 1988 in Seoul.

Torres first competed in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing where she finished 34th in a cast of 38 with a poor jump of 6.17 meters.

She had the first jitters competing in the world’s biggest stage for the first time and one of her jumps were interrupted when she had to stop and lost her concentration when she heard a bang from nearby. What she feared to be an explosion was actually a starting gun for a track event.

Torres’ best mark is 6.71, a record she set in winning the gold in the 2011 Indonesian SEA Games. She never improved that mark.

Her jump plummeted to 6.62m in winning the Asian All Stars in Almaty, Kazakhstan recently.

Before that, Torres posted 6.61m in winning the third leg of the Asian Grand Prix. She jumped 6.37m in the first leg and 6.42m in the second.

She finished fourth in the 2010 Asian Games with a jump of 6.49m.

Torres’ performance was at its peak when she trained in Germany for the 2010 Asian Games. She did 6.70 or more in mini-tournaments in Europe, making her a cinch to win the Asian Games gold that year.

For lack of follow-up training at the Ultra in Pasig after the German training, her jump shortened to 6.49m in the Guangzhou Asiad.

She fouled the last four attempts, each time miscalculating her take-off. This must have been caused by her post-German training at the Ultra on a ramp so warped and in bad shape an athlete could trip running over it. She made up for that in the SEAG in Indonesia where she did a career best 6.71m. She, however, “underperformed” again the last 10 months, because she had no place to train at in the Philippines. 

The Ultra long jump ramp was still in a state of under-repair and the Rizal Memorial oval was being used by the Azkals. The tracksters of athletics chief Go Teng Kok had to shuttle to Sta. Cruz, Laguna by dawn daily to train at the provincial sports center and get back to Manila by nightfall to take a rest at their living quarters at the RMSC Tower.

But, Torres said, you can never know if the other athletes are also in top shape.

“Honestly, the field is too strong. But you’ll find me in the field on Tuesday doing my best,’’ she said.