Obiena lone exemption as PH Athletics Open kicks off

Except for pole vault specialist EJ Obiena, nobody from the top draw of Philippine track and field is exempted from the 2017 Ayala Philippine National Open Invitational Athletics Championships.

Everybody, including Filipino-American Eric Shaun Cray, should show up when the qualifier for the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur kicks off Thursday at Ilagan City Sports Complex.

Three-time Olympian and long-jump queen Marestella Torres-Sunang, foreign-born Filipino tracksters Donovant Arriola and Zion Corrales and triple-jumper Harry Diones and the rest of the national tracksters are all raring to punch spots in the biennial Games.

“We require all our national athletes to take part in the National Open,” said Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association chief Philip Ella Juico. “We want to see actual performance for Patafa’s benefit and for the stakeholders and general public to see the faces responsible for these performances.”

Seventeen out of the 98 gold medals at stake in the four-day meet will be offered today in events such as the 10,000-meter run, shot put, high jump, 110m hurdles and long jump.

Obiena has been excused from participating after he was booked in a training camp in Italy under Olympic legend Vitaly Petrov in a bid to qualify in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.