The number of national athletes competing in athletics in the Asian Games could reach 15.
An increase in the list of delegates may happen after two more hopefuls, sprinter Francis Medina and Clinton Kingsley Bautista, moved closer to the qualifying times in their respective events.
National coach Joebert Delicano said this after Medina and Bautista made efforts to improve on their performances during their training activities at the newly-opened Vermosa Sports Hub in Imus, Cavite.
Delicano said their training stint at the Vermosa facilities is working well for the jumpers like Marestella Torres-Sunang and sprinters like Medina and Bautista.
That’s because the balsam surface of the track oval is similar to the one being used in the Asian Games in Indonesia.
Medina, who is into the 4×400-meter relays, is .5 seconds closer to the qualifying time of 4.1 seconds.
On the other hand, Bautista is .1 second short of of the 50.8-second time required to join to the men’s 100-meter hurdles.
So far, there are 335 delegates in the final list of the Philippine delegates to the 2018 Asian Games Indonesia, comprising 272 athletes and 63 officials.
From this list, there is an 8-member track and field contingent that’s already in the list of national athletes going to the Asiad.
This includes marathoner Mary Joy Tabal, Torres-Sunang, decathlete Aries Toledo, middle distance runner Marco Vilog, triple jumper Mark Harry Diones, sprinters Trenten Beram and Eric Cray.
The Philippines Athletics Track and Field Association has also added Fil-American sprinter Kristina Knott to the mix, along with Francis Medina (400-meters), Clinton Bautista (100 meter hurdles), long jumper Janry Ubas and Anfernee Lopena (100-meters).
