Unso rips PH hurdles record in Laos

LA SALLE’S Patrick Unso shattered his own Philippine record in the 110-meter hurdles as Team UAAP-Philippines added four silver and six bronze medals to its medal haul in the 16th Asean University Games Sunday in Vientiane, Laos.

Unso, the son of former record holder Renato Sr., clocked 14.49 seconds to surpass the national record of 14.58 he set in the 2011 Southeast Asian Games while nailing a silver medal behind Malaysia’s Mohamad Rohaizad Jamil.

The feat came a day after Far Eastern University’s Evalyn Palabrica broke the Philippine junior record in the javelin throw with a 45.43-meter effort.

La Salle’s Johansen Aguilar (200-meter butterfly), University of the Philippines’ Claire Adorna (50m backstroke), and La Salle’s Leigh Anne Nuguid (flyweight, taekwondo) also captured silver medals.

The bronze medalists were Aguilar (400m individual medley) and Adorna (400m IM), UP’s Julian Mickey Cordero (finweight, taekwondo), FEU’s Christopher Ulboc (3,000m steeplechase) and University of Santo Tomas’ Elbren Neri (800m run) and Michelle Loterte (110m hurdles).

Only UST taekwondo jins Christian Al dela Cruz (welterweight) and Ernest John Mendoza (middleweight) have recorded golden wins for the lean Team UAAP-Philippine contingent, which stayed in sixth place overall with a two-gold, seven-silver, 10-bronze tally.

Malaysia continued to lord it over the biennial meet with a gold-silver-bronze collection of 31-23-28 followed by Vietnam (26-17-13), defending champion Thailand (17-24-20), host Laos (16-14-20) and Indonesia (12-19-34). Jasmine W. Payo