AT crunch time late Saturday night, Ernest John Obiena delivered the country’s first and only gold medal at the end of the 26th Asian Athletic Championships with a thrilling jump-off win over former Chinese training partner Huang Bokai at the Gumi Civic Stadium in South Korea.
In his sternest test yet in the continental track showcase, Obiena secured the gold for the third straight time and retained his men’s pole vault crown by clearing 5.77 centimeters on his first try in the jump-off after he and Huang finished tied at 5.72 meters.
First to take off earlier in the sudden-death duel was the Chinese, who played second fiddle to the Pinoy ace after failing clear 5.77 meters. Thai Patsapong Ansamarng took the bronze with a personal best jump of 5.67 meters.
“Three-peat Asian Champion!!!” exclaimed back-to-back Olympian Obiena on his social media accounts in a photo with Huang and Ansamarng shortly after his latest accomplishment.
While his latest jump fell short of the continental record of 5.91 meters when he handily won the 2023 edition in Bangkok, Thailand, the Pinoy vaulter averted a medal shutout for the national track and field team that came to compete in the Asian meet with modest expectations.
Reigning 400-meter hurdles queen Robyn Lauren Brown, a triple gold medalist in the ICTSI Philippine Athletic Championships in Capas, Tarlac early in the month, could only muster fifth place in a season best of 56.98 seconds, way behind new Chinese champion Mo Jiadie (55.31).
A pleasant surprise was UAAP standout Hussein Loraña, who set a personal best of one minute and 47.88 seconds in finishing fifth in the heats of the men’s 800-meter run, surpassing the long-standing Southeast Asian Games record of 1:48.29 of Malaysia’s Samson Vellabuoy in the 1989 Malaysia Games.
Loraña also came tantalizingly close to breaking the national record of 1:47.52 set by Carter Lilly at the Bryan Clay Invitational meet in Los Angeles in 2019.
Also notable was the performance of middle-distance runner Bernalyn Bejoy, who placed seventh in the women’s 800-meter race in a time of 2:07.53 after earlier qualifying in the heats with a personal best of 2:06.83.
Bejoy’s time bested the SEA Games gold-medal winning times of Vietnamese Khuất Phương Anh (2:08.74) and Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà (2:08.55) in the 2022 Vietnam and 2023 Cambodia editions, respectively, and was just a hairline off the PH mark of 2:06.75 set by Rosalie Barnard on June 12, 2016.
Willie Morrison also set a season best of 18.55 meters while winding up in seventh in the men’s shotput event, while Tokyo Olympic Games veteran Kristina Knott wound up sixth in the women’s 200-meter dash in 23.82 seconds after being disqualified in the 100-meter run.
