Fil-Moroccan runner Yacine Guermali breaks PH record anew

Filipino-Moroccan runner Yacine Guermali. PATAFA FACEBOOK

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-Moroccan Yacine Guermali eclipsed another Philippine record after a second-place finish in the Portland Distance Carnival over the weekend.

Guermali set the 1500-meter national mark after clocking three minutes and 43.59 seconds.

He broke the previous record set by Mervin Guarte in the 2011 Southeast Asian Games while also surpassing the time of reigning SEA Games champion Duong Van Thai of Vietnam (4:06.63).

“Yacine Guermali strikes again!” the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association posted on its Facebook page Wednesday.

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“Yacine once more resets a Philippine record, this time in the 1500m with a time of 3mins43.59sec breaking the previous national record of 3mins47.65sec. His latest performance, achieved in Portland Distance Carnival on May 16, even surpassed the standing SEA Games record of 3mins45.31sec held by a Vietnamese athlete.”

It marked the second time that Guermali, whose mother Juliet Quilban hails from Nueva Vizcaya, put his name in the record book.

Last April, the 21-year-old redshirt junior at Gonzaga University shattered a 19-year-old Philippine mark by Eduardo Buenavista when he registered a time of 13 minutes and 35.36 seconds in the 5,000m event of the Oregon Relays.

Guermali’s time was 23.07 seconds faster than Buenavista’s in the 2002 Busan Asian Games.

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