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Capas, Tarlac – Both with Filipino blood in their veins, Singapore’s Marc Brian Louis and Jessica Laurance from Australia emerged as the fastest man and woman in the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships at the New Clark City Athletic Stadium late Friday night.
The Singapore national sprint champion, Louis, whose mother, Julie Ann Adsuara, hails from Moncada, Tarlac, won a close and exciting race in the men’s century dash, clocking 10.45 seconds to nose out FILAM Sport’s Miguel Anthony Rosario (10.53) in the meet organized by the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association.
Singaporean Daryl Tan (10.62) rounded out the podium finishers of the competition backed by the ICTSI Foundation, CEL Logistics, United Auctioneers, Inc., Wireless Link, Milo, Pocari Sweat and EnergyA.
Still aching from the bad fall suffered near the finish line in ruling the women’s 200-meter run last Thursday, Kristina Knott scratched from the 100-meter race, paving the way for Laurance, whose mom is a Filipina, to handily top the run with a time of 11.46 seconds.
UAAP Season 86 sprint double gold medalist Lianne Pama of UST (11.78) and TAFT’s Jandra Delotavo (12.85) took the silver and bronze, respectively, in the championships serving as part of the qualifiers for national team for the 33rd Thailand Southeast Asian Games in December and the Asian Youth Games in Manama, Bahrain in October for the PH junior campaigners.
After what he described as a rought start, Elija Cole finally got into groove once he had warmed up to dominate the men’s pole vault for the third consecutive time, jumping 5.25 meters in the trackfest also backed by Masiv Sports, Clark Water and BCDA-New Clark City.
Eyeing to represent the country for the first time in the Asian athletic championships in Gumi, South Korea late this month, Cole beat Taiwanese Huang Cheng-chi and Wu Yan-han, who both cleared 5.20 meters, with the the former securing the silver on the countback.
Just as dominant was towering Fil-Am Willie Morrison, who only needed his second throw of 18.81 meters in retaining his men’s shot put crown.
“It is just the start of the outdoor competition so this race against strong runners is just what I need,” said Louis, with his mother closely by his side, and who once studied at prestigious Singapore Sports School run by the Singaporean government, after the tight race.
Now a registered nurse after starting her life in Singapore as a midwife, the elder Louis, who was ran the 100 and 400-meter events in her youth, revealed his son joined her regularly jogging while he was young, eventually getting hooked on the sport.
Fresh from two-year compulsory military training, the 21-year-old Singaporean sprinter said that he had never considered competing for this mother’s country, revealing that he had won a bronze and silver, respectively, in his pet event in the 2022 Vietnam and 2023 Cambodia Southeast Asian Games.
“The Singaporean guy had a strong start. And I still felt a little jet lag.But that’s okay, there will be other times,” said Rosario, who had won the men’s 200-meter run the previous day.
On the other hand, Laurance, who was born in Sydney, Australia, said that even with Knott’s absence tht winning her first gold in her meet debut “was all so surreal. I wish she (Knott) had been in the race. it would have been really good us together pushing each other,”
“But I believe I ran well for myself. I didn’t have a good start but I executed well overall,” added Laurance, who took runner-up honors behind Knott in the women’s 200-meter race the day before.
Reflecting on his own performance, Cole, also a FILAM Sports protege, said that “at the beginning it was rough so I wanted to have less attempts. But I got warmed up, I felt more confident and everything turned out just fine in the end.”
He said that he would be staying around a bit longer and would see action in the Patafa Pole Vault Challenge organized by world No. 4 pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena on Tuesday at the Vermosa Sports Hub in Imus, Cavite.
“I believe I can clear and 5.50 or 5.60 and hopefully that will qualify me for the Asian championships in South Korea at the end of the month,” said the athlete of his forte where the actual entry standard is 5.51 meters.
In other overnight results, national team member Ronnie Malipay topped the men’s triple jump with a leap of 15.77 meters with UST’s Jeanne Ambal taking the distaff side with a jump of 12.44 meters.
With top favorite Yacine Guermali pulling out at the last minute, UE’s Anthony Cariaso triumphed in the men’s 1,500 meter race in 4:04.86 while FEU’s Susan Ramadan did the same in the women’s division with a time of 4:40.80.