Top SEAG bets see action in National track open

MANILA, Philippines—A preview of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games athletic competitions in Singapore looms in this year’s staging of the Philippine National Open-Invitational Athletics Championships, set March 19 to 22 at San Luis Sports Complex in Sta. Cruz, Laguna.

Some 1,500 top-rated athletes from Asia, including 80 to 90 from Japan, Korea, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and host Philippines will join the four-day National Open, which is making a return after a four-year hiatus.

“Our regional neighbors are coming in and using this competition to select their athletes going to the Singapore SEA Games this June,” said Philip Ella Juico, president of the organizing Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa).

The Philippine charge will be led by 19-year-old pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, who broke the national mark of 5.01 meters held by Edward Lasqueta for 22 years when he leaped 5.05 meters in July last year during a Patafa meet, before smashing it again to 5.20 meters to win the Singapore Open.