Princess Honey Arbilon–CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Princess Honey Arbilon felt the weariness kicking in as the competition went deep into the night.
When it was finally over in the wee hours of the morning, the Southeast Asian Games modern pentathlon gold medalist could not help but shed tears of joy.
The 18-year-old pride of Ormoc City never wavered in the face of fatigue, trouncing Nouran Beheiry of Egypt, 4-0, in the quarterfinals of the
Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) Laser AllStars to advance to the global finals of the online tournament.
“I started to get sleepy going into the round of 16 because it was almost 1 a.m. already,” Arbilon said after the qualification rounds of the world shoot fest that brought in the finest pentathletes from 33 countries across five continents.
Sheer determination and focus kept Arbilon going, clocking 12.47, 10.76, 13.13 and 10.16 seconds in the race-to-four round-of-16 consisting of five targets per match for a come-from-behind triumph over Marcella Mello of Brazil.
There was no more stopping Arbilon, a gold medalist in the mixed beach laser relay with Samuel German during the 30th SEA Games in Subic last year, after sweeping Beheiry with times of 15.52, 12.74, 8.54 and 9.42 seconds in the quarterfinals.
The UIPM, the global governing body for the sport, has scheduled the finals on Sept. 9 with Arbilon going for the gold medal against Darcy Dryden of Great Brittain, Silvia Ventura of Mexico and Maryia Gnedtchik of Belarus.
“I have to keep my focus, I have one month to train for the finals,” Arbilon said.
Dryden edged Paula Sophia Valencia of Guatemala, 4-3, Ventura crushed Magali Maciel of Argentina, 4-0, and Gnedtchik defeated Martina Armanazqui of Argentina, 4-2, to progress to the medal stage of the women’s under-22 event. INQ