AFTER carrying a Philippine passport for over a half-decade and running in the country for the first time, Yacine Guermali celebrated the momentous occasion yesterday by handily ruling the men’s 5,000-meter race at the start of the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships at the PhilSports oval in Pasig City.
Racing in a crowded field of 58 entries in the wee hours of the morning, Guermali bided his time and then wove his way to the front, clocking 14 minutes and 18.33 seconds for his first win in his mother’s country.
Left far behind was national athlete Sonny Wagdos, a silver medalist in the event in the 2023 Cambodia Southeast Asian Games, who clocked 14.54.86, while Cebuano Noli Torres clocked 15:05.00 to settle for bronze in the competition organized by the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association and backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, CEL Logistics and Milo.
“It is finally good to race in my mother’s country and in front of my other relatives. It feels great,” said Guermali, 24, whose mother was born in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya and father Adam, now a US citizen, ran for the Moroccan national team.
“This (win) was as much for them as for me,” said the former Gonzaga University athletics mainstay, who broke away from the pack with about six laps remaining.
Guermali expressed the hope that his victory would be a steppingstone in rekindling his Olympic aspirations of representing the Philippines while acknowledging that it would be a huge challenge considering that his personal best in the event is 13:33 and the Olympic entry standard is 13:05.
Once a member of the national pool who was unable to race for the country for various reasons, he credited FilAm Sports for tapping him to come over and compete in the country’s premier track meet, which is sanctioned by World Athletics as an Olympic qualifying ranking event.
