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Sheena Atilano clinched a second silver
medal—and a new Philippine women’s 100-meter hurdles
record—in the 2007 Asian Athletics Grand Prix third and
final leg Wednesday in Pune, India.
Atilano,
27, clocked 13.65 seconds to bag the silver and improve
by a hundredth of a second the long-standing national
record the now-retired Elma Muros-Posadas established in
the 1991 Manila Southeast Asian Games.
Anastasiya Vinogradova of
Kazakhstan
completed her sweep of the event, winning her third gold
with a time of 13.22 seconds. Dedeh Erawati of
Indonesia, the 2005 Southeast Asian Games silver
medalist, took the bronze in 13.68 seconds.
Atilano
will go home from the Grand Prix with three medals. She
also clinched silver in the first leg in
Bangkok
and a bronze in the second leg in Guwahati, India. She
also earned $2,100 (P98,000).
“She is
improving so fast and I have no doubt she will be one of
the gold medalists in the coming SEA Games, I can bet on
that,” said Philippine Amateur Track and Field
Association president Go Teng Kok.
Go said
that while Atilano is improving, her SEA Games rivals
aren’t, making her one of the country’s bright prospects
in the SEA Games Thailand will host in December.
“She has
already beaten the Indonesian [Erawati] who was the
silver medalist the last time. Then the gold medalist,
the Malaysian (Moh Siew Wei), is plagued by injuries. So
I could say Sheena is almost a sure gold,” Go said.
Atilano
previously was nowhere near the numbers for the podium
finishes in the previous SEA Games. But after undergoing
an intensive six-month training in the United States
with sprinter Ralph Wally Soguilon, she improved
dramatically.
The
former Palarong Pambansa gold medalist out of La Carlota
City, Negros Occidental, had a previous personal best of
13.71 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. In the Grand
Prix, she timed 14 seconds in the first leg, 13.92 in
the second and 13.65 in the third.
Atilano
is now in the company of Eduardo Buenavista, Ernie
Candelario, Rene Herrera, Marestella Torres, Lerma
Bulauitan-Gabito and Domingo Manata as having clinched
medals in the Grand Prix which offers a total cash prize
of $150,000.
More
than 150 athletes from 23 Asian countries took part in
the Grand Prix where 21 events were contested. |
