Gutsy Obiena claims Team Philippines lone gold

ILAGAN, Isabela, Philippines – Francis Edward Obiena soared in pole vault to give the host Philippines its lone gold at the close of the 12th Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships at the Ilagan City Sports Complex here yesterday.

With the country facing the specter of ending its campaign without a single gold, Obiena, who came from a family of pole vault enthusiasts including a cousin EJ who won the silver in the 2015 Singapore SEA Games, cleared 4.00 meters to beat Singaporean Sachiin Maan’s 3.80m and comnpatriot John Emmanuel Reyes’ 3.40m.

The 17-year-old Obiena, a graduating Grade 12 student at Chiang Kai Shek, tried to surpass his personal best of 4.30m by going 4.35m but failed in three attempts.

Hi feat saved Team Philippines from a disastrous finish in this two-day meet co-organized by PATAFA headed by Philip Ella Juico and Ilagan City Mayor Evelyn Diaz.

“I’m happy we finally won one for the country,” said Obiena, whose father Edward and uncle and coach Emerson – former SEAG medal winners – watched from the sidelines.

At the end of the meet, the Phl finished with a 1-8-13 (gold-silver-bronze) haul, finishing behind Vietnam’s 12-7-0, Malaysia’s 5-5-6, Thailand’s 5-0-0 and Singapore’s 2-6-5.

Earlier, a Yolanda victim and a security guard’s daughter came through with a pair of silver medals.

Lealyn Sanita, a 16-year-old native of Leyte who was 12 when the deadly super typhoon hit her province, faded in the stretch against the well-paced winner, Vietnamese Thu Hang Doan, in the girls’ 1500m.

Sanita overtook Thu entering the final 200-m stretch. But the Vietnamese unleashed one last burst of speed to snare the gold in four minutes, 45.53 seconds. Sanita was second with 4:55:63.

Indonesian Nani Dwi Purwati claimed the bronze in 4:58.09.

“I lost steam in the final stretch,” said Sanita, a product of the Leyte Sports Academy.

Dasmariñas, Cavite’s Jesell Lumapas, whose father Jonathan works as a bank security guard, pocketed a silver in the 400m and a bronze in the 200m in a span of an hour.

She timed in 58.94 to finish second behind Vietnam’s Thi Hong Han Le, who clocked 58.16. She returned later to take the bronze in the 200m in 26.02 behind Malaysian Nor Aliyah Abd Rahman (25.25) and Vietnamese Thi Hoa Duong (26.02) to cap a two-medal haul.

Lumapas, 16, later said she could have had a better shot at the gold but she failed to train a week before the Palaro due to a bout with flu.

“I had fever, flu and cough before I came here,” said Lumapas, a Grade 10 student.