MANILA—Filipino track and field athletes gearing up for the Southeast Asian Games captured three golds and two silver medals Wednesday in the Vietnam Open Athletics Championships at the Tom Nat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City.
Elizer Sunang led the Filipinos with a national record-breaking performance in winning the men’s shot put with a throw of 16.56 meters.
The 26-year-old from Tuba, Benguet, broke the 15.83m 1993 mark of Bruce Ventura set during the Philippine Open.
“The three are my trusted athletes, they are expected to win golds. What surprised me was my young athletes in the national pool, they are ripe for the SEA Games,” said athletics chief Go Teng Kok, who was impressed by the performances of nineteen-year-old Niño Espinosa and 20-year-old Katherine Santos.
Espinosa finished second to Dagmil with a leap of 7.42m while Santos was second in the women’s long jump.
Dubbed as the next Marestella Torres, Santos, a University of Baguio student, cleared 5.99m behind the winning jump of 6.04 by a Korean.
Jason Cid also qualified for the finals of the 400 meters and 400m hurdles which are scheduled Thursday.
The Philippines won seven gold medals in the 2009 Laos SEA Games, and is setting its sights on bringing home nine golds in Indonesia in November.