IF Carlos De Imus’ latest achievement is any indication, he’s on track to contend for gold at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games this December in Bangkok, Thailand.
De Imus made history for Philippine athletics by setting a new national record in the men’s 20-kilometer race walk during the 20km Asian Race Walk Championships held over the weekend in Nomi, Japan.
The 24-year-old standout clocked an impressive 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 0.03 seconds (1:30:03), smashing the previous national record of 1:33:51 set by Michael Embuedo in 2009 in Lingayen, Pangasinan.
Not only did De Imus rewrite the Philippine record books, his time was also notably faster than Indonesia’s Hendro Yap’s gold-winning mark of 1:40:42 at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia and even surpassed Yap’s SEA Games record of 1:32:11 set in 2017 in Malaysia.
De Imus was joined by his coach, Saturnino Salazar—himself a national record holder—and Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) president Terry Capistrano as the athletics’ body marked a triumphant return to international competition.
This was De Imus’ first international race of 2025, following domestic appearances in the 10,000-meter walk at the 2024 Philippine Championships and the 3,000-meter walk at the 2023 Batang Pinoy–Philippine National Games.
In the women’s side, Alana Julianne Halaguena represented the Philippines in the 20km race walk, but was unable to complete the event.