OUTSIDE of ace pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, athletics chief Terry Capistrano believes that Paris Olympic Games veteran and hurdler John Cabang Tolentino is a cinch to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan in September next year.
“I am confident that John Cabang Tolentino will make it to the Worlds. He’s young, only 21, and is already world-class,” said Capistrano when he was cited as the Sports Godfather of the Year during the Nickel Asia Corp. Siklab Awards at the Market! Market! Mall Activity Center in Taguig City.
The Spain-based pure Filipino athlete is within striking distance of the qualifying standard of 13.27 seconds for the men’s 110-meter hurdles at the world meet, which will be held Sept. 13 to 21, 2025, in the Japanese capital.
Tolentino is just .10 of a second shy of that standard with his current national record of 13.37 seconds set last May at the Philippine Athletics Championships at the Philsports track oval.
Hobbled by an injury, the hurdler clocked 13.66 seconds to finish sixth in the opening heat of the event at the Paris Olympics and did not compete in the repechage round so as not to worsen the injury.
Capistrano said another potential bet to compete at the worlds is hurdler Lauren Hoffman, who, like Tolentino, made her Olympic debut at the Paris Summer Games.
Hoffman, who has a personal best of 55.72 seconds in her forte, the women’s 400-meter hurdles, needs to improve if she is to make the qualifying cut of 54.65 seconds.
“I think Lauren and maybe one or two more will be able to sneak in and qualify for the Worlds,” Capistrano, the president of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association, said.
As for Obiena, who finished fourth with a jump of 5.90 meters in the Paris Games last August, the athletics honcho said he talked with the athlete about two weeks ago “and my understanding is that he is fully healed. Okay na siya.
Obiena was forced to cut short his European outdoor season after his Olympic stint to undergo surgery on his spine and is currently ranked No. 4 in the World Athletics world ratings after going as high as No. 2 behind phenomenal Swede Armand Duplantis.
“He has been progressing rapidly and I believe in no time at all he will be able to regain his No. 2 world ranking,” Capistrano said.
The popular Obiena has already qualified for the Worlds in Tokyo, bagging a silver and bronze – and setting a new Asian record of six meters flat – in the previous editions in Eugene, Oregon and Budapest, Hungary, respectively.
He qualified with his Olympic finals jump of 5.90 meters, surpassing the qualifying height of 5.82 meters.
