pinoyathletics.com

 Contents

• SEA Games 2013: Minimum of five golds, maximum of nine for Philippines Track and Field with Poll
• SEA Games PSC to send 17 priority atheltes to Australia
• SEA Games Criteria
• SEA Games Standards
• SEA Games Qualifiers (multi-merge)

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SEA Games 2013: Minimum of five golds, maximum of nine for Philippines Track and Field (with Poll)

Article  by Pirie Enzo

At the Last SEA Games the Philippine Athletic Community were holding their heads in their hands. The Philippines had a poor final performance of a mere three gold medals (one was awarded after the Malaysian 4x400m Team was disqualified when one of its members tested positive for a banned substance).

The Question arose where do we go from here to avoid a repeat from happening again?

Fortunately instead of being a continued pattern of performance this was a huge wake up call to the organization that something needs to be done, and something needs to be done fast.

Recently more ‘meetings of the minds’ have been happening between Go Teng Kok and coaches from the Athletic community to find an answer to this challenge. The PSC by helping fund seventeen of the medalists to Australia and Mr Jim Lafferty former head of P&G Philippines have even offered to help assist the sport. Third Party Organizations such as Run4Change, Hypersports, Laguna Provincial Government and Davao Athletics Sports Association have been very helpful in assisting and ‘supporting our athletes’.

Combine this also with the fact a new batch of Fil-Heritage athletes is emerging to help boost the team and lift the depth of locals in some events.

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Minimum of Five Golds

The way I see it we have a chance of at least five secure golds.

Marestella Torres has been the SEA Games Champion four times, continuing the legacy left to her by De Vega, Muros and Buluitan. Since 1983 the Philippines has only conceded the victory once in this event  to Vietnam in 2001. The experienced Torres is a two time Olympian and currently holds the SEA Games Record at 6.71m.  She performs very well at this meet historically. However Indonesia Maria Londa is rapidly catching up with 6.55m Personal Best recently. It is the hope of the athletic community that Torres has one more fight left in her.

Another veteran looking at stitching up his sixth sea games title is Rene Herrera. The popular Olympian who befriended Mo Farah after the 5km race at the Olympic Games at 34 will be up against a pair of much younger Vietnamese runners who will be after his crown. Again the experienced campaigner I believe will lift the SEA Games 3K Steeple Title perhaps for the final time.

Newcomer Archand Bagsit who ran to a heroic silver medal in the Mens 400m last sea games has been on the improvement trail. Bagsit came back from fifth in the last 80 meters to run down his exhausted opponents to claim the silver behind Heru Astriyano of Indonesia. Bagsit who is ‘always ready’ ran below 48 seconds during each leg of the grand prix and in the process set a new personal best of 47.44. He also took the scalp of Heru during these races and later repeated this feat at Almaty, Kazakstan in the Asian All Stars. Heru however has ran a seasons best of 47.27. But the possibility of Bagsit dipping below 47 seconds is there especially now that he has some overseas training lined up.

The Mens 4×400 where awarded the Gold last sea games after one Malaysian runner caused the team to be disqualified for use of a banned substance. The Filipinos look at defending this title. So far the four quickest Bagsit, Alejan, Cid and Nierras seem to be up to the task with alot of spare tires in reserve in the form of other capable quarter milers.

The Final certain gold is Rosie Villarito the 2009 SEA Games Champion in the Javelin. Villarito who lost her women’s title last year (performance was worst throw in any competition), is very unlikely to miss out again as none of her throws before or since have been around that range. Prediction Villarito to regain her SEA Games title. But faces a strong challenge from 23 year old Bu Thi Xuan of Vietnam who recently improved to 49.80m. The more experienced Villarito should be able to overcome her opponent.

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Stay tuned for next time as we will cover the four other possible gold medals for SEA Games 2013 in Myanmar.

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PSC Will Fund 17 Priority SEA Games Medalists to Australia

(Sept 29, 2012) I was sent this message by PSC commissioner Jolly Gomez with his express permission to share this with the Athletic Community.

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Andrew, etc.

I had a good meeting with national team and coach Joseph about the Priority Athletes Program. We have decided to send our SEA games medalists to Australia for training starting January 2013 (either Darwin, Brisbane or Canberra). It will be a great opportunity for them to get valuable training in good facilities prior to the games. There are 17 athletes in all. PSC is paying for all the expenses.

I also approved a line-up of 30 athletes to compete in the Thailand Open on November 2-5. These include some medalists in the last PNG like Keizel, Wenlie, Pach and Cid. I would like to open this to more athletes on a “pay as you go” basis. If any athletes decides to join and is included in the line-up paying for their own way, and this athlete wins a medal. I will reimburse them all their expenses. Airfare, accommodation, meals.

We want a good team for the SEA games in 2013. And I am here to help. All the Priority Athletes will first go to Baguio for conditioning and training prior to their trip to Australia. Renovations to convert Phil Sports into a top quality track facility will begin right after the UAAP. Baguio will follow once this is complete.

Keep up the good work in support of athletics.

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Comments

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“We were once a great nation in South East Asia and Asia at Track and Field, now is the time for us to unite towards a common goal and that is for the betterment of our sport. We must ensure we have are best athletes chosen and best prepared for the challenges ahead at the 2013 SEA Games and 2015 SEA Games, and onwards. Let us build a legacy together which will be and remembered and continue long after we are gone.”

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I will mainly deal with the topic in the blue for now, the topic in the red I do not wish to discuss at this point as I need to check with PATAFA in regards to confirm and authenticate the official list of athletes who have been approved by the PSC to goto Thailand. As I know some will be self funded and some will be covered by the PSC.

This is very good news for the sport, in the last few months the PATAFA, PSC and various other third party groups have been very productive in helping reform and support are Track and Field program. An article will be coming in regards to these various organizations soon as promised.

The fact that the PSC is willing to help lend a hand in the growth of Track and Field is very good news for Philippine Sports as Track and Field is a medal rich sport at SEA Games. The World Class facilities and sports knowledge from Australia will greatly benefit aour Athletes and they will be able to bring that knowledge back with them to help boost our athletic program when they return.

By the sounds of it they are taking neccessary steps also to upgrade facilities which are much needed.

Might I add I was both impressed and surprised that Mr Go Teng Kok is taking the lead in actively wanting to help with the reforms within the sport. This a link from Pinoymiler with more deatails in regards to the Meeting for Coaches to discuss issues with Mr Go Teng Kok with guest speaker Mr Jim Lafferty the former Head of Proctor and Gamble in the Philippines. This encouragement and sharing of ideas openly is greatly going to boost our National Sports and these ‘meetings of the minds’ is opening the doors to the athletic community.

So I send this message to the track community and those with nostalgia of yester year.

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SEA Games Criteria according to the PSC

I had been advised by PATAFA coaches the PSC/POC will be the ones to decide on the qualification criteria for the SEA Games. Therefore I took the initiative and went to the government bodies to get the answer.

The PSC/POC has not been able to answer some simple questions I put forward to them for the last two weeks in regards to SEA Games qualification criteria. I had posted on their website, on there Facebook group and also sent them emails. These were my questions.

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1) What will be the qualification criteria for SEA Games?

2) When is the qualification Period.

I also asked another question, which I don’t expect them to know straight away

3) Where and when is the PNG being held?

Without a concrete response statement from the PSC/POC any information listed below is now purely speculation. It’s very important that the PSC/POC do relay this information so there is no miscommunication/selection issues between the PSC/POC, PATAFA and the Athletic community. The Philippines in the past has gone off the bronze medal standard and a visit to the Singapore Athletics Association Website shows me they already have standards in place made available to the general public. Which proves to me that the Sports Association has already made it clear to the NSA what is required. Rather than leaving this matter to the last-minute of preparation. This table prepared below by are good buddies in the New Singapore Athletics Management Team shows the Singaporean Selection Criteria.

Going off the below logic (awaiting PSC Statement) Philippines has ten athletes qualified and one relay team 4x400m Mens. All four runners in the mens team combinded on seasons best times have exceeded the 3.14.90 required bronze standard with a total time of 3.12.80 this is not even considering rolling starts factor. Archand Bagsit and Marestella Torres are the only two athletes who have surpassed the gold medal standard so far. A complete list is available for download here.

**Update I received a reply from the PSC a few days ago (response in italics)

The PSC is not the group that accredits athletes for international competition. We are funding agency.
The decision on who to send to the SEA Games is up to the NSA (PATAFA) as determined by the coaches which is then endorsed to the POC.

This clarifies that the PSC is not involved in the selection process. Therefore conclude the POC sets the standards as guidelines and it is up to PATAFA to submit the initial lineup which the POC can approve. If the PATAFA submits a lineup which is ‘more along the lines’ of what the POC requires then for sure more athletes in theory should be approved.

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Below is the Bronze Medal Standard Singapore is using to select their athletes.

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2013 Selection Criteria for Singapore Athletics

2013 SOU

MENS	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100m	10.37	10.46	10.47
200m	20.93	21.05	21.46
400m	47.53	47.71	47.97
800m	01:49.42	01:50.69	01:51.3
1500m	03:47.63	03:47.65	03:49.48
5000m	14:10.01	14:35.98	14:41.30
10000m	30:10.43	30:43.62	31:22.20
Marathon	02:27.45	02:28.26	02:29.09
110Hurdles	13.77	13.86	14.14
400Hurdles	51.45	51.6	51.7
3000 Steeple Chase	08:52.23	08:55.91	08:57.88
20km walk	01:32.34	01:33.23	01:35.48
4×100 Relay	39.91	39.91	40.41
4×400 Relay	03:10.49	03:11.16	03:14.90
Long Jump	7.86	7.78	7.61
Triple jump	16.43	16.39	16.14
High jump	2.15	2.12	2.08
Pole vault	5.10	5.00	4.70
Discus	51.32	50.56	50.28
Shot putt	17.74	17.53	17.08
Javelin	69.07	68.87	66.27
Hammer	61.46	60.19	57.04
Decathlon	7223	6830	6602

WOMENS	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100m	11.69	11.69	11.73
200m	23.65	24.01	24.06
400m	54.13	54.27	55.28
800m	02:02.65	02:05.62	02:08.41
1500m	04:15.75	04:18.94	04:21.19
5000m	16:06.37	16:12.23	16:31.85
10000m	34:52.74	36:04.83	36:16.84
Marathon	02:45.35	02:46.37	02:48.43
100Hurdles	13.51	13.53	13.77
400Hurdles	57.41	58.97	59.64
3000 Steeple Chase	10:00.58	10:04.42	10:48.97
20km walk	01:43.22	01:45.19	01:46.04
4×100 Relay	44.40	45.00	45.12
4×400 Relay	03:41.35	03:44.65	03:45.03
Long Jump	6.71	6.47	6.25
High jump	1.90	1.87	1.87
Triple jump	13.76	13.73	13.64
Pole vault	4.20	4.20	3.90
Discus	52.25	49.98	48.22
Shot putt	16.96	14.59	14.37
Javelin	48.80	47.35	46.73
Hammer	55.15	51.95	49.69
Heptathlon	5488	5285	5196

ATHLETES QUALIFIED FOR SEA GAMES

Based on 2011 Bronze Medal Standards (see above)

List of Bronze Medal Standards can be found below Link

• Based on 2012 to 2013 qf period
• Keep a watch out for this list it will be updated.

Mens

GOLD

400m Archand Bagsit 47.44 (47.53)

400m Hurdles Eric Cray 50.46 (51.45)  50.74 (2013)

SILVER

LJ Henry Dagmil 7.71 (7.78 his own mark)

PV Caleb Monticalvo 5.05 (5.00)  (needs to submit passport)

DECA Jesson Ramil Cid 6963 (6830)

BRONZE

10k Julius Sermona 31:09.44 (31:22.20)

HJ Manuel Lasangue 2.10 (2.08)

PV Julio Alorro 4.91 (4.70) (dual citizen) 4.82 (2013)

Mens 4×400 Actual 3:13.70 Bagsit, Alejan, Nierras, & Bano 3.13.70

Projected (Archand Bagsit (47.44), , Jesson Ramil Cid (48.05), Edgardo Alejan Jr. (48.41) Julius Nierras (48.51) 3:12.41 (3.14.90)

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Womens

GOLD

LJ Marestella Torres 6.62 (6.71 her own mark)

JT Rosie Villarito 49.46m  (48.80) (2013)

SILVER

HEPT Narcisca Atienza 5208 (5285 her own mark)

200m Kayla Richardson 23.84 (24.01  subj to age rule decision, needs to submit passport)

BRONZE

400m Timarya Baynard 55.10 (55.26) (Needs to submit passport)

PV Riezel Buenaventura 3.90 (3.90)

HT Loralie Sermona 50.23 (49.69)

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