pinoyathletics.com

Article by Pirie Enzo

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Pinoyathletics.com has spread awareness not just to the Filipino Athletic community but to Filipino communities living around the world. There are millions of Filipinos living overseas who can benefit from the facilities and well structured programs of various countries. One of the latest Fil-Heritage finds to contact me was a fellow by the name of Caleb Monticalvo. If it wasn’t for the site we may not have found Caleb as he is one of the few who does not have ‘Facebook’.

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Origins

Caleb Monticalvo was born in 28th of July 1989 .  Caleb father is Filipino and his mother is Italian. His father was the only one of the siblings born in the United States and his grandmother holds duel-citizenship and hails from Antique in the Western Visayas. His home town is Escondido and he attended Orange Coast College (high school) before moving onto California State Stanislaus (University) in Los Angeles..

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National Record but not yet

Monticalvo has already leapt 5.03m, which exceeds the Filipino National Record.

What makes Caleb unique is that he has already exceeded a standing national record, Caleb’s best leap of 5.03m set when he won the CCAA Track and Field Champs in the NCAA Div 2 on 3rd May 2012. This record is actually ahead of current holder Fil-Heritage athlete Edward Lasquette from San Diego who leapt 5.00m and went on to win three consecutive sea games in 1993,1995,1997 and represent the Philippines at the Barcelona Olympics.

Unfortunately as Caleb did not yet hold a Filipino passport his 5.03m is not eligible for the record.However he is working on acquiring a Filipino passport which was the criteria set out for the PATAFA and as soon as he obtains one is eligible for the record and to represent the Philippines if he can show consistency.

It is almost for certain that the Filipino National Record will disappear at some stage in the next few months when the US Collegiate season starts in November and goes until May.

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Two Fil-Heritage Vaulters beat Bronze Medal standard for SEA Games

Monticalvo and Alorro are on a campaign to return the gold medal to the Philippines in the mens Pole Vault.

Continuing the proud tradition of Fil-Heritage Pole Vaulters left by Edward Lasquette we now have not only one but two Vaulters who have far exceeded the SEA Games bronze medal standard of 4.70m. Monticalvo joins Julio Alorro (read about him here) in contention for the SEA Games medals next year in Myanmar. The two will again have to prove themselves at the Philippine National Games at the end of May next year.

The last SEA Games was won by Kreetha Sintawacheewa of Thailand in 5.10m, with Sompong Saombunka his team mate taking silver in 5.00m. Third was a distance behind in 4.70m which became the SEA Games Bronze Medal standard. This year Kreetha equalled 5.10m in Busan topping the SEA Ranking Lists for 2012.

These lists had been compiled by Mr Jad Adrian Washif of Malaysia, he has not yet included the new discoveries for the Philippines. However the next ranked athlete is the Vietnamese Vaulter whose best leap is 4.85m (PB). This ranks Caleb (5.03m) second and Alorro (4.91m) third on the 2012 Ranking Lists. Also note that Sompong of Thailand has not registered a jump. Caleb and Alorro are definitely in contention for the medals at SEA Games. It is even not too far fetched now to say that Caleb could be an outside chance of winning the gold and causing an upset over Kreetha if he has a bad day or gets injured before the event.

One thing is for certain the Thai’s will not expect such a strong challenge from a new breed of Filipino Pole Vaulters.

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Performances of Caleb

College Roster

Related articles

• Fil-Heritage athlete Alyana Nicolas. The Story of the PV Womens JR Record Continues……….. (pinoyathletics.com)
• Philippine Mens Pole Vault (pinoyathletics.com)