PATAFA OPEN Quitoy sets new javelin milestone
ILAGAN, Isabela — Javelin throw’s Ann Katherine Quitoy exceeded the distance at the 2019 Ayala Philippine Athletics Championships late Thursday after surpassing the 21year-old national junior record at the City of Ilagan Sports Complex here.
The Bacolod City bet and Palarong Pambansa record holder hurled the 600gram javelin to 44.71 meters for the gold medal, erasing the 44.54m mark of Rosie Villarito set at the 1998 National Open.
Charmaine de Ocampo of Dasmariñas City Athletics also shone in the girls division after clinching her fourth gold medal in the 1500 meters.
She claimed her first gold on Wednesday in the girls 800m (2:20.91) then teamed up with twin sister Charlaine, Krisleen Shane Santiago and Aaliyah Ingram a few hours later for the 4x100m relay gold (50.47sec).
She and her relay teammates returned on Thursday to capture the 4x400m relay gold (4:04.40).
Fil-American Robyn Brown, whose mother hails from Cavite, also boosted her bid to qualify to the Southeast Asian Games national team after reaping three gold medals.
The middle-distance runner ruled the 400m hurdles on Wednesday in 61.27sec, then prevailed in the 4x400m women’s relay with Fil-foreigners Kayla Richardson, Zion Nelson and Kristina Knott in 3:55.20 on Thursday.
She sealed her campaign with a golden feat in the mixed 4x400m mixed relay with Eloisa Luzon, Francis Medina and Michael Del Prado in 3:33.44 on Friday.
Later in the day, Kristina Knott came close to smashing Lydia de Vega-Merca- do’s decades-old record in the women’s 200m after clocking 23.63sec for her third gold medal.
Mercado’s 23.35sec set at an event in Walnut, California in 1987 still stands.
Eric Cray also fell short of breaking the men’s 200m record at 21.92sec – a second slower than Trenten Beram’s record of 20.84sec set at the 2017 Malaysia SEAG.
As expected, EJ Obiena overpowered his rivals in the men’s pole vault.