The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association is ecstatic of the 1-2 finish of its athletes Christine Hallasgo and Mary Joy Tabal in women’s marathon of the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the athletic stadium of the New Clark City, but reiterated its call to review the start of the event so as not to endanger the athletes competing in future editions.
PATAFA president Philip Juico, upon closer inspection of the races, said some aspects of the event were troubling.
“Two runners from each gender did not finish the race. And the winners, especially, on the women’s side, suffered so much as attested by event doctors, who checked on them post-race,” said Juico.
These were a result of the scorching heat of the sun as the races finished at around 9 to 10 a.m.
The PATAFA tried so hard to put the welfare of the athletes its utmost priority by writing Technical Delegate Cuddikotta Valson twice before the SEA Games, the last one in October, to reconsider starting the race at 4 a.m.
But the pleas were completely ignored and disregarded by Valson.
“The marathon, especially in the women’s division will be run on an average of 3 hours. If the competitors will start at 6 in the morning, half-way into the race the sun is already in its full might and beating on all the runners. Take note that the area where the race will take place is not known to be shaded with trees or any shade-giving structure. The runners will all be exposed to the searing heat of the sun,” Juico wrote Valson last October.
“Aside from the concern on the sun’s heat, there is another equally unsettling factor we have to contend with. That is humidity. The Philippines, being an archipelagic country, most of the time is humid. Humidity is the relative concentration of water in the air. When humidity is high, the volume of air expands. When volume of air is high, concentration of oxygen per unit area is low. In endurance races especially the marathon, oxygen is the critical driving force to performance and survival. So the plausible situation is that the runners will exert more effort yet get less oxygen to support that effort. And that is not an ideal setup for any competing marathoner. Although Capas, Tarlac, where the race will take place, is in Central Luzon which is relatively distant from the coastal area where humidity is expectedly high, it will still be humid considering the forecast of our national geophysical agency that December this year will be exceptionally warm. Warm in the Philippines means humid warm,” the letter continued.
“Solar heat plus rising core temperature plus humidity equals a high potential wreck waiting to happen. This is what we want and need to avoid,” Juico reasoned out.
Juico’s fears turned out right as four runners in all did not finish the race, while some of those who did were carried out of the stadium on stretchers.
Those who were unscathed were led by Hallasgo, who pulled off an upset win against teammate and erstwhile champion Mary Joy Tabal in the marathon event.
The 27-year-old Hallasgo found her chance to go for the women’s crown when Indonesian runner Odekta Naibaho collapsed due to exhaustion in the last 400 meters as she reached the turn going into the NCC complex.
As Naibaho was carried out of the race route, Hallasgo took over the lead and reached the track stadium finish line with Tabal for a 1-2 finish among Filipina bets in the women’s division. Even Tabal collapsed at the finish line due to the heat and had to be carried out of the stadium on a stretcher.
Hallasgo grabbed her first-ever gold medal on her first-ever SEA Games stint as she reached the finish line in two hours, 56 minutes and 56 seconds.
Tabal was one minute and 53 seconds behind to check-in at 2:58.49.