CAPAS, Tarlac—Philippine team mainstays Robyn Brown, John Cabang-Tolentino and William Morrison III lived up to the challenges they faced against national champions from Thailand and local rivals on Saturday in the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships at the New Clark City Stadium here.
Brown started and finished strong against Thai national champion Arisa Weruwanarak with a time 13.85 seconds in the women’s 100-meter hurdles.
This gave the Fil-Am her third crown after she also ruled the 400m hurdles and helped the national squad claim the 400m mixed relay honors in the event, also known as the National Open.
“The 110-meter hurdles is a hard thing to do. It’s not an easy event,” said the 30-year-old Brown, who came close to the national mark that fellow Fil-Am Lauren Hoffman set last year in the national open at 13.34 seconds.
Weruwanarak, who won the Thai national title in the 400-meter hurdles last year, took the silver in 14.15 seconds, while Malaysia’s Lee Yie Teng (14.48) nailed the bronze in this competition supported by the ICTSI Foundation and CEL Logistics.
Meanwhile, Cabang-Tolentino, back from an injury, snared the gold in the men’s 110-meter hurdles in 13.98 seconds, holding off national teammate Clinton Bautista in the final stages.
Bautista settled for silver in 14.66 seconds, while Fil-American Kaleb Luton ended up in third at 14.29 seconds.
“He’s always a challenge. He’s very fast in the first part. But I saw him in the last hurdles and I sort of almost screamed,” said Cabang-Tolentino, who retained his crown.
Morrison earned his third crown in the shotput event, after heaving 18.81 meters, higher than the 17.56-meter feat he did in the Kansas Relays last April.
Malaysian Open champion Jonah Rigan took runner-up honors at 17.95 meters, with another Malaysian Kamai Rahman (15.96) in third.
“It’s humid. But I love the heat. It’s just challenging coming from the US and competing with athletes from other countries. It makes me work harder,” said Morrison.
Reigning Thai national champion Jirayu Pleenaram prevailed over Philippine national team member Frederick Ramirez, taking charge in the last 50 meters of the 400-m and timed 47.37 seconds to his foe’s 47.71.
Ramirez, who hurt an inner thigh muscle during training two weeks ago, said he did not push his luck in running with Pleenaram.
In other events, Far Eastern University’s Ronel Juntilla came out on top in the decathlon with 5356 points, ahead of schoolmates Tamaraws Pacifiico Tolentino and Rolly Royo, who settled for the silver and bronze, respectively.
University of the East standout Jeralyn Rodriguez outran national team bet Bernalyn Bejoy for the gold in the women’s 400m with a time of 55.67s. Bejoy had 55.98.
