Returning Santos patterns career after that of a legend

On or off the track oval, Katherine Khay Santos, the country’s returning athletics’ heroine, is drawing inspiration from legend Elma Muros-Posadas.

After all, Posadas has brought honor to the country 15 times in the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG), a few of them while she was already raising a family with coach and husband Jojo Posadas.

“They (the Posadas couple) are the ones guiding me now,” Santos told the Inquirer. “I pattern my career after coach Elma.”

The 31-year-old Santos ruled the 100-meter dash and long jump during the recent Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) national open three years after an abrupt retirement to give birth and raise son Khalie Nathan.

“Now, I have brand new perspective in life, I no longer concern myself with what other people are saying,” said Santos, who quit in 2018 while she was on the cusp of moving out of the shadow of Marestella Torres-Sunang.

In Baguio City during Patafa’s national open, she captured her hometown’s fancy when she bested Sunang for the long jump gold medal, springing to 6.06 meters right on her first attempt. The national team regular also made that distance but it took her three more tries.

Santos skipped the sixth and last try because she was about to compete in the century dash which she also dominated with a time of 12.61 seconds.

“My times are still far off, but we are taking it gradually. We don’t want to rush to hit it right away,” said Santos, two-time bronze winner in the SEAG. “I have been away for three years. It’s not going to happen overnight.

Her personal best in long jump is 6.40m and in 100m, her fastest time is 11.99 seconds.