Robyn Lauren Brown now has sights on Worlds

BANGKOK—Robyn Lauren Brown is taking it a hurdle at a time getting to Paris for the Olympics next year.

“This (win) is definitely a stepping ladder or stepping stone to get to where I want to go,” said the 28-year-old Brown Sunday after ruling the women’s 400-m hurdles of the 25th Asian Athletics Championships at Supachalasai National Stadium that put her in the World Athletics Championship for another shot at a berth in the Paris Summer Games.

“I have eyes on competing at world relays (to qualify),’’ said Brown after timing 57.50 seconds and giving the Philippines its first gold in the meet. She will go with pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena to Budapest in Hungary for the Worlds from Aug. 19 to Aug. 27.

That event is another qualifier for the Olympics, where Brown would need to run 54.85 seconds or better for an outright berth.

Another gold for EJ Obiena

EJ Obiena capped an exceptional Philippine campaign here after running away with the men’s pole vault gold.

The world’s third-ranked vaulter validated his reign as the continental monarch of his event, topping the field in 5.91 meters (m) to retain the title he bagged in the 2017 edition in Doha, Qatar.

“My goal here was really to just compete the best that I can and just do what I know I could do,’’ said Obiena, who erased his previous meet record of 5.71m.

The now back-to-back Asian champion tried to break his own current personal best of six meters after raising the bar to 6.02m, but couldn’t pull it off in three attempts.

Obiena’s golden jump, however, rewarded the nation something to brag about as he and Brown gave the country a pair of golds for the first time since the 1987 edition in Singapore, when the late sprint queen Lydia De Vega completed a golden sprint double.

“I’ll have to talk to my coaches and see what our training schedule will look like,’’ said Brown, whose sister Morgan was part of the 2022 national women’s football team that helped the Philippines qualify for the coming Fifa World Cup.

“I might have to take a little bit more time off from work, so I can better prepare myself,’’ added the self-confessed LA Lakers fan.

Coached by hurdles specialist Jenna Bird, Brown knows what she needs to do to contend in the Worlds.

The Filipino-American hurdler holds the national standard of 56.44 clocked during the 2022 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Hanoi, Vietnam where Brown took a bronze medal.

She made amends this year in the Cambodia SEA Games with a silver medal.

“We will definitely go back to the drawing board to see what our training program looks like. It’s just gonna be a little bit more intense,’’ said Brown, who is scheduled to leave this Thai capital early Monday. INQ