Filipino-American bet Natalie Uy is expected to move up in the Asian and world rankings following her record-breaking effort at the Acadia Invitational in Greenville, North Carolina over the weekend.
Uy, making do with limitations imposed due to ongoing quarantine measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease, cleared 4.30 meters in pole vault at the UCS Pink Panther to place sixth behind American bets Sandi Morris and Katie Nageotte.
In doing so, she went past the Philippine mark of 4.25 meters for the second time since March 1.
Last March, Uy had 4.26 meters during the KTTCCCA Indoors in Shelbyville, Indiana.
During the 2019 SEA Games, she took the gold medal in record breaking fashion at 4.25 meters.
Since then, Uy has been ranked no. 1 in Southeast, ahead of fellow Fil-Am Alyanna Nicolas and Malaysian Yu Thian Chuah.
She is now no. 74th in the world, and no. 6 in Asia.
Uy is hoping the reach the Olympic entry standard of 4.70 meters, which will qualify her to the Tokyo Olympics.
Morris, the silver medalist in the 2016 Rio Olympics, topped the nine-women competition with a vault of 4.81 meters.
Nageotte, the 2018 US Indoor champion, made a similar feat of 4.81 meters but settled for second.
“You train by yourself in the gym or in the tracks so having that motivation to have that real workout was really, really tough during that time,” Uy said in runnerspace.com.
