BEIJING—Marestella Torres, hobbled by a painful knee injury, crashed out of the women’s long jump qualification Tuesday at the Beijing Olympics here.
Torres felt something hot grab her left knee as she took off in her first attempt before 90,000 fans at the decibel-drowned Bird’s Nest main stadium. She landed in the sand pit in pain, then held her knee for a few seconds.
That ill-fated first leap gave Torres a puny 4.27 meters, which she later managed to improve to 5.94 and finally to 6.17—a far cry from her three-year-old national record of 6.63m.
The 27-year-old jumper from San Jose, Negros Occidental, still finished 34th in a field of 41 in the qualification stage topped by American Brittney Reese with a leap of 6.87m. Three jumpers fouled all three attempts and failed to score.
“Biglang bumigay ang kaliwang tuhod ko sa (My left knee gave in on) takeoff,” Torres said. “Pinilit ko na lang italon kahit masakit (I kept going despite the pain).”
The 12th Filipino to see action in the Games avoided the mistakes of compatriot Henry Dagmil in the men’s competition.
The United States-trained Dagmil made do with his first and only legal jump in three tries Friday night to bomb out with a dismal leap of 7.58m. He wound up 34th in a field of 38 entries.
Delegation officials initially thought that Torres, Southeast Asia’s undisputed long jump queen, was distracted by the loud clap of the starter’s gun for the 200m dash as she powered through the runway for the first time.
“We thought she aborted it because of the starter’s gun,” said press attaché Joey Romasanta. “Then we saw her complete a half-hearted leap.”
Favoring her left leg, Torres bravely answered the starter’s call for the second and third jumps without fouling.
Reese towed Russia’s Tatyana Lebedeva (6.70), Brazil’s Keila Costa (6.62) and Britain’s Jade Johnson to the finals from the Filipino’s second group.
Torres would have made it to the 12-jumper finals if she at least matched her RP mark.
The other qualifiers were Maureen Higa Maggi of Brazil (6.79), Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine (6.76), Carolina Kluft of Sweden (6.70), Grace Upshaw of the US (6.68), Oksana Udmurtova of Russia (6.63), Tabia Charles of Canada (6.61), Funmilaya Jimoh of the US, and Chelsea Hammond of Jamaica (6.60).
Though she failed to meet the Olympic qualification criteria of 6.72m, Torres was the national athletics association’s first choice as the country’s one of two mandatory participants in the sport, the other being Dagmil.
