Marestella primed for semifinal breakthrough

LONDON—Long jump coach Joseph Sy never doubted the tenacity and fighting heart of his favorite ward.

Not even when, as Asia’s No. 1-ranked long jumper, Marestella Torres bombed out at the first hurdle in the Beijing Olympics four years ago and then settled for the bronze at the Guangzhou Asian Games.

Now Sy is placing his bets again on a good showing by Torres, who sees action at the Main Olympic Stadium here on Tuesday.

“Marestella is ready to compete,” said the well-credentialed IAAF long jump coach who is also the longtime mentor of Beijing Olympian Henry Dagmil.

“If everything goes well and she surpasses her national record, she will be the first Filipino to make it to the Olympic semifinals in long jump.”

Torres has six attempts to beat her high-water PH mark of 6.68 meters, which she set in dominating the event in the 2009 Laos Southeast Asian Games.

Twelve of the starting field of 40 long jumpers from 34 countries will advance to the semifinals here.

Sy said Torres has a clear chance of making that elite bunch if the qualifying leap is based on the Beijing Games, where the last four of the 12 qualifiers posted numbers that did not exceed the Philippine record.

Three Asian women from Kazakhstan, Japan and China have gone past 7 meters but all have lost to Torres at one time or another in the last three years, according to national athletics chief Go Teng Kok.

“Conditioning is all that matters at the time of the competition,” said Go. “If Marestella peaks at the right time for London, she would be hard to beat by these three women.”