Two assured Budapest tickets

World No. 2 pole vaulter EJ Obiena and Asian Athletics Championships 400m hurdles gold medalist Robyn Brown will represent the Philippines at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Aug. 19-27 with SEA Games long jump king Janry Ubas a candidate to make it a threesome if he earns enough qualifying points via two competitions in Lapeenrant, Finland and Trieste, Italy before the month ends.

Obiena and Brown carried the Philippine flag proudly at the recent Asian meet in Bangkok, hitting paydirt to tow the country to its first harvest of two gold medals in 36 years. Ubas made it to the long jump final and leaped to a distance of 7.98m to finish seventh, a marked improvement from 7.85m that was the gold standard at the last SEA Games. From Bangkok, Ubas flew to Europe with coach Dario De Rosas to compete at the Motonet Grand Prix in Finland and the Trivineto Meeting in Italy. The Finland joust was held last Wednesday and the Italy meet is set tomorrow. He withdrew from a third competition in Stuttgart, Germany on July 29 because his Schengen visa allowed only 10 days. It was a missed opportunity to accumulate more qualifying points for Budapest.

In last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Obiena cleared 5.94m to bag the bronze behind Mondo Duplantis’ 6.21 and Chris Nilsen’s 5.94. Although Nilsen and Obiena cleared the same height, the American took the silver as he did it in one try and the Filipino, in two attempts. It was the first Philippine podium finish in the World Championships ever. Obiena, who has since cleared 6.00m, is coming off a 5.91m jump to set a new Asian Athletics Championships record. Brown clocked 57.5 seconds in 400m hurdles in Bangkok to clinch the gold and received a wildcard invite to participate in Budapest on the strength of her showing.

PATAFA president Terry Capistrano said in Bangkok, 110m hurdler John Cabang Tolentino figured in a photo finish with Kuwait’s Yaqoub Alyouha for third place as both were initially timed at 13.56 seconds. A laser frame-by-frame review of the ending revealed Alyouba crossed ahead of Tolentino by a hair. Under World Athletics rules, an outcome may be appealed within 30 minutes of the conclusion of an event. PATAFA filed an appeal and organizers waived the usual $100 fee to review the action with the margin of difference a fraction of a second and it couldn’t be decided by the naked eye. If Tolentino clocked his Bangkok time in the last SEA Games, he would’ve struck gold because first place was shared by Thailand’s Natthaphon Dansungnoen and Singapore’s Ang Chen Xiang with identical marks of 13.831 seconds.

“Too little time left for Tolentino to qualify for the World Championships,” said Capistrano. “But he’ll be a contender in the Asian Games.” Tolentino went to Bangkok with his Spanish coach Martin de la Fuente. He was born to Filipino parents, who are both chefs, in Spain and on his own, secured a Filipino passport from the Embassy and showed up at the PATAFA weekly relays as a walk-on last year. Capistrano lauded Tolentino for his drive and efforts to bring honor to the country.