Patafa bats for 14-man team to Asian Games

The Philippine athletics team to the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia is bidding to include more tracksters to increase chances of winning medals.

Athletics chief Philip Ella Juico has appealed for the inclusion of seven more athletes apart from the initial six already accredited by the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Heading the list of the Asiad-bound squad on Aug. 18 to Sept. 2 are three-time Olympian Marestella Torres-Sunang (long jump), marathoner Mary Joy Tabal, pole vaulter EJ Obiena, middle-distance runner Marco Vilog, triple jumper Harry Diones and decathlete Aries Toledo.

Also joining them is Southeast Asian Games double-gold medalist Trenten Beram, who got cleared by the Philippine Athletics and Track and Field Association (Patafa) after he and SEA Games 400-meter hurdles king and record holder Eric Cray missed the all-important Korean Open.

The federation formed a committee headed by lawyer Nicanor Sering, Patafa secretary general Renato Unso and board member Jeanette Obiena to decide whether Cray should be sanctioned for failing to race in the Korean Open, where the duo’s Asiad rivals saw action.

Cray was given 10 days to explain his absence and why he should be included in the lineup. Beram and his father have already talked to Juico.

Juico forwarded the names of pole vaulter Natalie Uy, sprinter Cristina Knot, 800m specialist Carter Lily, long jumper Junrey Ubas, 110m hurdler Clinton Clark Bautista, sprinter Anfernee Lopena and Francis Medina (400m hurdles) to the POC.