Malapit leads 4-man track squad to Dubai
Southeast Asian (SEA) Games silver medalist Gennah Malapit banners a four-woman Philippine athletics team for the 21st Asian U20 Athletics Championship 2024 at the Dubai Police Officer’s Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates starting on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old javelin thrower, who clinched her first SEA Games medal last year in Cambodia, will be the country’s notable bet in the Asian tilt.
She teams up with 2023 SEA Youth Athletics Championships gold medalist and javelin thrower, Ana Bhianca Espenilla, 2023 SEA Youth Athletics Championships silver medalist and discusses thrower Courtney Jewel Trangia and distance runner and University Athletics Association of the Philippines bronze medalist Anna Eugenio.
This will be the first time the competition will be held since 2018 in Gifu, Japan.
The biennial athletics meet was supposed to take place in Bangkok in 2020 but it didn’t push through owing to the pandemic.
Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association secretary general Jasper Tanhueco told DAILY TRIBUNE that he expected the young athletes to step up and surpass their limits in this Asian tilt.
“This competition presents a valuable and challenging opportunity for our young athletes, especially for these girls. With two javelin throwers surpassing the gold performance from last year’s U20 event based on their personal bests, and the other two showed great potential,” Tanhueco said.
“So we expect them to surpass their PB (personal best) and hopefully place on the podium. Moving forward, we look forward to seeing more young athletes competing in this event, to further increase our talent pool.”