DUE to logistical challenges and other issues, five-time Southeast Asian Games 400-meter men’s hurdles king Eric Shawn Cray will be the only US-based athlete who will see action for the national team in the 10th Asian Indoor Athletic Championships on from Feb. 10 to 12 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
“Only Eric will be available for the Asian indoor meet. Natalie is recovering from injury while sprinter Kristina Knott and shot putter Willie Morrison said they are not yet fit for a high-level event like the Asian indoors,” said athletics secretary general Edward Kho, who will head the national squad.
Kho said that in the case of pole vaulters Ernest John Obiena, who is based in Formia, Italy, and Hokett delos Santos “there is no way that they can bring their poles with them because there is no plane that can load them.”
Aside from Cray, the other overseas-based athlete set to compete in the Asian Indoor meet is Filipino-Spanish Jason Cabang, who will pay on his own since he is still not a member of the national team, according to Kho.
“He has been competing in the Patafa weekly relays and his record in the 110-meter men’s hurdles is slightly faster than Clinton Kingsley Bautista,” he said, referring to the back-to-back SEA Games champion in the event.
“Perhaps this is a good time to see how our homegrown talent will fare and not relying too much on our Fil-heritage athletes abroad,” noted Kho, who added the three-day competition is part of the national team tryouts for the 32nd Cambodia Southeast Asian Games in May.
He said that aside from Cray and Cabang, the rest of the 12-member national squad will be composed of local athletes bannered by Bautista.
Obiena is scheduled to compete in the Mondo Classic, the exclusive pole vault event named after Tokyo Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Mondo Duplantis, today (Thursday night in Europe) in Uppsala, Sweden.
A part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour Challenger series, the event features the current 10 top men’s pole vaulters, led by Duplantis and two-time American world champion Sam Kendricks.
Also in the elite field is Obiena’s training partner, Rio Olympics gold medalist Thiago Braz of Brazil; KC Lightfoot of the US, German Bo Kanda Lita Baehre, Belgian Ben Broeders, Australian Kurtis Marschall, Norwegian Pal Haugen Lilleflosse, Frenchman Thibaut Collet and Greek Emmanuel Karalis.
