ILAGAN CITY—The big guns are expected to show up to punch their respective slots in the national team when the 2017 Ayala Philippine National Open Invitational Athletics Championships goes full blast Thursday at the sprawling Ilagan City Sports Complex here.
Two-time Olympian Eric Cray banners the list of track and field luminaries, who will slug it out for 98 gold medals and a slot in the national team that will see action in the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur this August.
The Texas-based Cray, the fastest man in Southeast Asia, is already in this sun-baked city and is expected to formally register his entry together with stars Donovant Arriola, Zion Corrales and Marestella Torres-Sunang, leaving thrower Caleb Stuart and sprinters Kayla and Kyla Richardson as the only members of the national team who will not see action.
A total of 17 gold medals from 10,000-meter run, shot put, high jump, 110-meter hurdles and long jump will be at stake in the opening salvo of this prestigious tournament presented by the City of Ilagan and sponsored by Ayala Corporation with Milo, Philippine Sports Commission and International Amateur Athletics Federation as co-presentors.
Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association president Philip Ella Juico said the National Open serves as a selection process that everybody has to go through, including those who have already qualified and emerged with medals in the previous SEA Games in Singapore.
“We require all our national athletes to take part in the National Open meet,” said Juico, who is also a former chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission. “We don’t want to simply rely on submitted best performance record. We want to see actual performance for Patafa’s benefit and for the stakeholders and general public to see the faces responsible for these performances.”
He added that the only player exempted from competing in this battle is pole vault specialist EJ Obiena, who is currently training in Italy under Olympic legend Vitaly Petrov in a bid to qualify in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“He already hit the SEA Games standard. His training abroad supported by the PSC, IAAF and Patafa was rigorously structured several months again with the schedule of the SEA Games as the focal point.”
National coach Jojo Posadas echoed Juico’s statement, adding that the athletes’ performance in this tourney that also has Foton Pilipinas, UCPB Gen and Run Rio as minor sponsors will ultimately determine their fate in the national team.
“We have a total of 12 new national team members that have actually qualified to the Malaysia SEA Games and 19 who brought home medals in the previous SEA Games, so we have now 31 bets in the Kuala Lumpur Games,” said Posadas, husband and mentor of track legend Elma Muros-Posadas.
Aside from the Fil-Heritage athletes, other teams competing are those from Brunei, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kinabalu Montana, Sabah, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste.
“However, they still have to perform in the next four days to justify their inclusion in the national delegation.”
A colorful opening ceremony ushered the start of hostilities with no less than Sen. Manny Pacquiao serving as keynote speaker, and Isabela 1st district Rep. Rodito Albano, Mayor Evelyn Diaz and former Mayor and overall coordinator of this event Josemarie Diaz serving as guests of honor.