THE Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association’s (Patafa) list of gold medal potentials continues to grow with still two months left before the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Decathlete Janry Ubas registered 7.78 meters to rule the men’s long jump event of the Thailand Open Track and Field Championship recently in Bangkok.
A UAAP Most Valuable Player for Far Eastern University, Ubas booked the golden finish just a few days after tallying 7.88 meters in the Patafa time trial at Philsports track oval that shattered the SEA Games record of 7.87 meters etched by Henry Dagmil in the 2007 SEA Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.
It also broke the SEA Games gold standard of 7.75 meters registered by Supanara Sukhasvasti of Thailand in the previous biennial meet in Singapore.
“This achievement is one of the effects of building community and focusing on the SEA Games with these young men and women as role models,” said Patafa president Philip Ella Juico, adding that Ubas and 11 other members of the team will fly straight to Hong Kong to train in the Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) for four weeks before embarking on their SEA Games journey in August.
“If this trend continues, we will certainly surpass our output in Singapore and we still have to train in HKSI.”
Aside from Ubas, Patafa is also banking on Filipino-Americans Eric Cray (400m hurdles and 100m dash), Kayla Richardson (100m dash), EJ Obiena (pole vault), Harry Diones (triple jump) and Patrick Unso (110m hurdles) to deliver the gold medals.
Unso, in fact, registered a new national record of 13.91 seconds to claim the bronze medal in the men’s 110m hurdles of the Thailand Open.
The previous national record is 14.12 seconds, which he also tallied in the last SEA Games in Singapore.