Pole vaulter Riezel Buenaventura won a gold even as Mary Jane Miano and Mary Ann Dela Cruz topped the women’s discus throw and 3,000m steeplechase events, respectively as FEU took the early lead after eight events in the elite division.
The 24-year-old Buenaventura kept the pole vault title she first ruled in 2004 as a junior player by clearing the bar measured at 3.63 meters.
She defeated Kuan Mei-Lien and Lin Wan-Chen of Taiwan who recorded 3.40m and 3.30m, respectively.
Buenaventura’s previous personal best performance was 3.62 meters. She still holds the national junior record at 2.60m.
Not to be outdone were Miano and Dela Cruz.
Miano threw the iron disk at 33.94 meters to edge teammate Kenneth Grace Ferrera (32.48m).
Dela Cruz timed at 12:23.1 seconds to outrace teammate Nancy Pilaro who clocked 12
Katherine Khay Santos and Rhemilyn Soriano, meanwhile, ruled the long jump and 100m sprint, respectively to give University of Baguio two golds.
Santos jumped to 5.27m to defeat Bulacan State University’s Anges Gacusan (5:16m) and FEU’s Mildrid Salut (4.96m) while Soriano reclaimed the sprint title with 12.65 seconds performance over Hanelyn Loquinto of FEU (12.78) and Gacusan (12.90).
The Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa) earlier announced that the three-day tournament would be an all-Filipino event because of financial and time constraints. But Patafa President Go Teng Kok may yet turn it into an international competition after some countries have already expressed their intention to participate in the tournament.
“That is a welcome problem. Suddenly, we have visitors coming so we will be spending more time and money than what we originally planned. But we’re truly honored by this development,” said Go. Go added that they did not send out invitations to other countries but the National Open is always included in other countries’ calendar as a must-come event.
“It’s like the Philippines also wanting to play in the Singapore Open, Hong Kong Invitational, Malaysia Open, etc. The simple logic here is, play with the best,” added the athletics chief.
The National Open aims to discover new talents from collegiate and provincial level as athletes from different parts of the country are expected to show up.
Insights: Some of the country’s top athletes including Asian champions Lydia de Vega, Elma Muros and Marestella Torres were discovered in the National Open - all came from FEU.
— Mike Lee with reports from Manila Times
