Diones, relay team improve Phl marks

ILAGAN CITY, Isabela, Philippines – Triple jumper Mark Harry Diones and the newly formed men’s 4x100m relay team of Eric Cray, Trenten Beram, Jomar Udtohan and Anfernee Lopena came through with record-breaking performances on the penultimate day of the 2017 Ayala Phl National Open here.

Diones, 24, shattered the five-month-old record of 16.29 meters he himself set in the weekly relays at the Philsports Complex in Pasig by leaping to 16.70m on his sixth and final attempt to capture the gold.

The Jose Rizal U criminology graduate also surpassed the current Southeast Asian Games silver medal mark of 16.20m owned by Thai Varunyoo Kongnil while coming just less than a tenth of a meter off the SEAG record of 16.76 set by Malaysian Muhammad Hakimi Ismail in Singapore two years ago.

Interestingly, Ismail ended up with just a silver in this four-day meet with a 16.06m after he fouled in all his first five attempts.

Sri Lankan Sanjaya Sandaruwan Jayasir wound up with the bronze with a 15.69m.

Diones is eyeing to be the first Filipino to breach the 17.00-m plateau.

If he does that, Diones will be a medal contender in the Asian Games as the silver and bronze medalists, Dong Bin of China and Kim Doek Hyeon of South Korea, posted distances of only 16.95m and 16.93m, respectively.

Chinese Cao Shuo took the gold with a 17.30m.

“I will train hard to achieve it and I hope my three-month training in Australia before the SEA Games will help me,” said Diones.

Also making a good impression was the quartet of Lopena, Beram, Udtohan and Cray, who erased the 12-year-old mark of 40.55 seconds by clocking 40.29 on their first outing together.

Sabah’s Edward Eddie Jr., Benedict Ian Gawok, Ibraham Saldam and Shahrimien Saimoh and Mapua’s Fernan Lopez, Ronnie Valentin, Philip Christian Austria and John Renzelle Capingian pocketed the silver and bronze in 42.34 and 43.32, respectively.

“Lopena had a good lead on the first leg and I didn’t have to do anything,” said Cray, the current SEAG record holder in the 100m and 400m hurdles who served as an anchor for his team.