Ray of sunshine
My goal was to win gold and get the SEA Games record
CAPAS CITY — Filipino-American pole vault specialist Nathalie Uy and heptathlete Sara Dequinan provided a ray of sunshine on the gloomy Philippine campaign in the athletics competition of the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Sunday at the New Clark City Athletics Stadium here.
With the Nationals licking the wounds created by the disqualification of Eric Cray in the preliminary heats of the men’s 100-meter run and the unexpected tumble of Kristina Knott in the women’s 100-meter dash, Uy and Dequinan lifted their morale with a pair of impressive wins.
Uy, the former Eastern Michigan University star, set a new record in women’s pole vault with 4.25 meters to capture the country’s third gold medal in the centerpiece event.
She eclipsed the 4.21-meter record set by Sukanya Chomchuendee of Thailand in 2013 edition in Myanmar, signaling her reign as queen of Southeast Asian pole vault.
Chomchuendee and teammate Chonthicha Khabut registered 4.10 meters and 4.00 meters to settle for silver and bronze medals, respectively.
“The preparation has been very good, very disciplined. Some days were really hard, but I know I have to do well here,” Uy said.
“My goal was to win gold and get the SEA Games record. Of course I want to go higher but I’m satisfied.”
Dequinan won the second gold medal of the home team in athletics after ruling the women’s heptathlon with 5,101 points, beating Norliyana Kamarrudin of Malaysia who notched 4,909 points and Sunisa
Khotseemueang of Thailand who registered 4,730 points.
With that, the vaunted national athletics team now has five golds medals, one short of its target with still a couple of days left in the competition.
The triumphs of Uy and Dequinan somehow eased the pain on the national team after Cray, the country’s bet for the men’s century dash, was disqualified in the heats due to faulty starts.
Knott also failed to sweep the sprint events after settling for the silver medal in the century dash with a time of 11.55 seconds, just a shade below gold-medal winner Tu Chnh Le of Vietnamn, who timed in 11.54 seconds.
“Damn. It’s okay. She (Le) did a good race. I still got two more races,” said the 24-year old Knot, who ruled the 200-meter race Saturday night in record fashion.
“What went wrong? My legs are all numb and I’m lying down. Never got the rest in me,” the standout from University of Miami added.
Singapore’s Shanti Pereira took the bronze in the 100-meter event with the time of 11.66 seconds.
Mariano Masano also delivered a silver medal to Team Philippines in the 1500-meter run after clocking four minutes and 08.27 seconds with Vietnam’s Van Tha Duong taking the gold medal with 4:06.63.
Thailand’s Yothin Yaprajan grabbed the bronze medal with 4:08.90.
Marestella Torres-Sunang, the former SEA Games long jump champion, finished fourth with the distance of 6.16 meters.
The bronze medalist, Vietnam’s Thi Mong Mo Vu also registered 6.16 meters but the Filipina had more attempts to drop to fourth.
Indonesia’s Maria Natalia Londa took the gold in the women’s long jump with 6.47 meters while Thailand’s Parinya Chuaimaroeng settled for the silver with 6.23 meters.