Anfernee Lopena denied national teammate’s Clinton Baustista bid for a golden treble Thursday afternoon by winning the men’s 100-meter dash with a personal best time of 10.41 seconds in the Philippine Athletics Championships at the Philsports track oval in Pasig City.
With a slight technique change, Lopena led from start to finish to clip Bautista, who was relegated to second place in 10.56 seconds, also a personnal best. John Dave Puno was third (11.0).
A gold medalist in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Eloisa Luzon-Medina easily won the women’s 100-meter sprint in 11.9 seconds, while Army’s Jelly Diane Paragile wa second in 12.17.
Khay Santos placed third (12.27) in the meet organized by the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association.
“Medyo binago ko ‘yung technique upon advice of coach Jeoffrey Chua na huwag mag-all out sa umpisa and just to accelerate in the last 60 meters. Gumana naman,” said Lopena after his close duel with Bautista in the competition supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.
The 2019 SEA Games gold medalist in the 4×100-meter mixed relay said that the time was his personal best in seven years. It was even faster than the 10.49 seconds of Thai SEAG silver medalist Ruttanapon Suwan.
“Hindi ko na nasabayan si Penny (Lopena’s nickname) kasi napagod na ako after the two hard races sa una,” said Bautista, who was gunning for a third gold to his collection after ruling the men’s 110-meter and 200-meter hurdles Thursday morning.
Melvin Calano, the reigning men’s SEAG javelin champion, showed improvement in hurling the spear to 66.10 meters, 70 centimeters better than his previous throw of 65.40 meters in the Patafa Performance and Time trials at the same oval last month.
In the other afternoon results held the other day, SEA Games-bound Junel Gobotia topped the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:29.38) and teammate Mariano Masano took the men’s 1,500-meter race (4:02.37) in the competition backed by Iligan City, G-Shock Casio, Chips Delight and Lily’s Peanut Butter.
In morning results yesterday, nationals Alrhyan Labia and Jessel Lumapas swept the men’s and women’s 400-meter runs in 48.58 and 56.07 seconds, respectively, in the meet also sponsored by GuanaPro -C, Cellife Cellular Nutrition, @Tokyo, Masiv Sports, Gatorade, Summit Mineral Water and PencerQ.
Also joining the ranks of yesterday’s winners were women’s national shot-putter Daniella Daynatta (11.74), men’s Leonard Grospe of Metasports AC (2.01) and women’s triple jumper ABCD Agamanos of Team Iskolar (11.23).
Among those scheduled to see action yesterday afternoon were Fil-Am and 2019 SEA Games gold medalist Willie Morrision III, who was favored to win his pet event in the men’s shot put to add to the discus throw gold he won last Thursday.
Also featured was up-and-coming pole vaulter Hokett delos Santos, only the third Filipino outside of Ernest John Obiena and US-based Edward Lasquete to clear five meters.
