WITH an injured left ankle and still under the weather due to a fever the week before, no one would have blamed high jumper Leonard Grospe if he had pulled out of his event in the Philippine National Games trackfest at the Philsports track oval in Pasig last Wednesday night.
Certainly not his coach Sean Guevara, who saw something in the gangling teener way back in 2019 when he finished second in the Central Luzon Regional Athletic Association trackfest and failed to qualify for the national Palarong Pambansa in Davao City months later.
What surprised Guevara, who also handles two-time Southeast Asian Games decathlon champion Aries Toledo, was the fact that Grospe took the silver in clearing 1.90 meters barefooted.
“Without formal training, this showed that Leonard had outstanding skills as a high jumper,” said Guevara, who decided to take the athlete under his wings and brought him to his house in Tarlac for training.
Under his tutelage and competing as a “guest” entry in the 2019 Philippine Southeast Asian Games, Grospe cleared 2.05 meters in the high jump for eighth place, a huge 15-centimeter improvement from his previous personal best.
“Even then, I kept on telling Leonard that he would become an elite high jumper, capable of jumping at 2.20 meters up,” said Guevara, who set the old national record of 2.17 meters at the age of 29 in 2005 at the National Open at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
Due to a nagging injury just before the 2021 Vietnam SEA Games, the native of Dasilag, Aurora did not do too well, slumping with a jump of 2.04 meters but improved in the last edition in Cambodia in May to fifth place, clearing 2.13 meters.