MORE medals can be won in athletics.
American coach Roshan Griffin, who has been part of the coaching staff of Team Philippines for many months, believes so.
Griffin said this following time trials that members of the national squad did before they left for Kuala Lumpur for the 29th Southeast Asian Games.
“Everybody ran their personal best times. Things are looking good,” said Griffin.
With one gold medal already won by Mary Joy Tabal in women’s marathon, focus is now on the performance of sprinter Kayla Richardson.
The 19-year-old Richardson will be missing the 100-meter sprint, an event where she is the defending champion.
Instead, she will concentrate on the women’s 200-meter.
This time, Zion Corrales Nelson takes her place. She will be up against Vietnamese Le Thu Chinh, who currently holds the three fastest times in the women’s 100-meter, according to the regional rankings.
Le has clocked 11.47 seconds, 11.54 seconds and 11.61.
Nelson, being ranked third in 2017, will challenge Le, by trying to do better than her personal best of 11.69 seconds.
“They [national tracksters] are now tapering down and getting ready to peak,” added Griffin.
The athletes included in the pool to compete in the Games went through their last phase of intensive training last month.
Many of them flew to the Hong Kong Sports Institute for their 6-week training last June 16.
The HKSI training stint was fully supported by the Philippines Sports Commission, with the help of the Ayala Corporation, UCPB Gen and Cherrylume Corrugated Sheets.