With six events calendared, obstacle course racing is a potential source of gold medals for the Philippines in the coming Southeast Asian Games.
That is why Philippine Obstacle Course Federation national coach Raven Quan is hoping that the top performers in the ongoing Asian OCR Championships at Quirino Grandstand would turn out to be viable gold medal hopefuls for the country in the Games.
“We are choosing the national team and those who perform well in the race have a strong chance of making it,” said Quan.
Over 200 obstacle runners from 10 countries are taking part in the 100-meter run with 10 obstacles, the 5k run with 20 obstacles and the 400m team event.
Two events each for 100m (10 obstacles), 400m (12 obstacles) and 5km (20 obstacles) will be featured in the 11-nation Games in November in Subic.
The finest obstacle runners from Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Guam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Marianas and Vietnam are entered in the races that serve as the test event for the SEA Games..
Top Filipino obstacle racers such as Nitz Sanchez in the women’s side and the pair of Manolito Divina and BJ Miranda in the men’s are fancied to clinch spots in the team.
Three other countries will join the Philippines in the obstacle course racing event during the SEA Games with Malaysia, Myanmar and Laos set to enlist entries.