Cray, Uy, Knott make crack Philippine pool

CITY OF ILAGAN, Philippines — Olympian Eric Cray and newly minted pole vault queen and record-holder Natalie Uy led the initial batch of 25 athletes who qualified for the national training pool for the Southeast Asian Games after proving their worth in the three-day Ayala Philippine Athletics Championships here.

Cray, along with Anfernee Lopena, Jomar Udtohan and Clinton Bautista, met the qualifying time for the men’s 4x100 meter relay with their winning clocking of 40.13 seconds. The 30-year-old Cray is expected to get the QT in his pet event, the 400m hurdles, as well as the sprints in future competitions between now and September.

Lopena also passed the grade in the men’s 100m run with his victorious 10.63 effort while Bautista achieved qualification in the men’s 110m hurdles with his silver-winning 14.22.

Fil-Am Uy, who set a new Phl mark of 4.12m in her debut tournament, towed runner-up Alyana Nicolas (3.80m) and third- placer Riezel Buenaventura (3.40m) in the women’s pole vault pool while triumphant US-based runners Carter Lilly (men’s 800m) and Robyn Brown (women’s 400m hurdles) cracked the squad after posting 1:50.93 and 61.27, respectively.

The meet’s fastest woman, Kristina Knott (11.64), easily made it to the women’s 100m run pool along with silver medalist Zion Nelson (11.84).

National mainstays Francis Medina (52.36 seconds in men’s 400m hurdles) and EJ Obiena (5.36m in men’s pole vault); 2017 SEAG runner-up Harry Diones (16.08m in triple jump), and 2017 SEAG bronze medalists Janry Ubas (7.55m in men’s long jump), Arniel Ferrera (52.16m in men’s hammer throw) and Evalyn Palabrica (47.82 in women’s javelin throw) similarly earned their spots.

Men’s10,000mrun1-2-3finishers Richard Sallano (31:43.31), Rafael Poliquit (31:42.96) and Anthony Nerzo (31:43.89); women’s 10,000m ruler Christine Hallasho (38:39.27), heptathletes Sarah Dequinan (4,514 points) and Josefa Ligmayo (4,307 points), discus throw king Albert Mantua (46.94m), and girls 400m hurdles Top 2 Riza Depulco (61.53) and Bernalyn Bejoy (62.14) booked their berths as well.

 “Compared to previous years, especially two years ago, there were three records broken; now just one. But it’s not a cause for alarm. This is just the opening of the season so we don’t expect athletes to be pushing for records,” said Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) president Philip Ella Juico.  “I’m satisfied with (the performance of) both the homegrown and Fil-Ams.”

Juico said the natioonal pool members will have to maintain their status until September, the time for the association to finalize its SEAG roster.

He added that a series of international competitions is being lined up for the Pinoy tracksters, including the Singapore Open, the Asian Championships, the World Relays, the World Championships, Thailand Open and Taiwan Open.

“All of these are in preparation for the SEA Games,” said the athletics boss.