Masters golds for Obiena, Lavandia

KITAKAMI CITY,  Japan—Erlinda Lavandia and Emerson Obiena made up for the sudden withdrawal of former Asian long jump queen Elma Muros-Posadas due to injury, winning two gold medals for the Philippine Masters Team on Monday in the 18th Asia Masters Athletics Championships.

Lavandia bagged the gold in the javelin throw event for women 60-64 years old, heaving the spear as far as 30.05 meters to beat Japanese Kato Keiko (28.76 m) and Ota Tokiko (26.44 m).

Obiena also tooke the gold medal in men’s pole vault (45 years). He cleared 4 m to beat Higashino Makoto of Japan (3.8 m) and another Japanese in Fukaya Eiji (3.2 m).

John Lozada took the bronze medal in the 800-m race with a time of 2 minutes and 18.08 seconds.  Local bets Namekawa Yuji (2:08.48) and Koji Kashima (2:10.08) placed 1-2.

Muros-Posadas sustained an injury in her first long jump attempt.  She also got injured last year in the hurdles and was leading the race when she was forced to quit.

The Philippine team earlier bagged two silver and three bronze medals.