By Peter Atencio
PHNOM PENH — The hot summer weather will play a big factor when the athletics meet begins with the 32nd Southeast Asian Games men’s and women’s marathon competitions at 6 a.m. Saturday in Sim Reap City.
With the weather expected to reach a high of 39-degrees celsius, Richard Salano and Arlan Arbois will challenge the dominance of defending men’s champion Hoang Nguyen Thanh of Vietnam in a field made weaker by the absence of Thailand’s Tony Ah-Thit Payne.
Payne, a naturalized New Zealand athlete, who bagged a bronze medal at the SEA Games marathon in Hanoi last year, slipped and was injured while preparing for the games in Bangkok.
His absence has given Salano and Arbois an opening to fight for a podium finish, or even
pull off an upset win against the favorites.
“Overall, the team is ready. Napaganda ‘yung maagang dating namin dito, hindi hurried at unti unti nagse-settle in time for the competitions. Our athletes are not tense. They are ready to compete,” said athletics’ secretary general Edward Kho.
Christine Hallasgo, the marathon champion in the 2019 edition of the games, before settling for the silver medal last year in Vietnam, will try to regain the crown with the help of teammate, newcomer Ruffa Sorongon.
Standing in her way are champion Odekta Elvina Naibaho of Indonesia and Nguyen Thi Ninh of Vietnam.
And while Filipino tracksters have slowly assimilated with the running conditions with their early arrival, they can still expect fierce competition from Vietnamese runners in particular, as they have been in Cambodia much earlier, for a month to be exact, familiarizing themselves with the two routes and the scorching conditions.
The rest of the events of athletics will be played in Phnom Penh from May 8 to 12 at the Morodok Techno National Stadium, including pole vault on Monday with world’s no. 3 Ernest John Obiena shooting for a third straight SEA Games title.