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BEIJING—Maristella
Torres was in high spirits, vowing to make the best out
of her first Olympics stint. But her flesh, particularly
her left knee, didn’t cooperate.
Torres
leapt to 4.27 meters in her first attempt in the women’s
long jump qualifying round Tuesday at the National
Stadium or the Bird’s Nest, where again a big crowd came
to fill all 91,000 seats. That’s when her left knee gave
in before takeoff.
But
courage, and the Olympic spirit, took over the pride of
Dumaguete City. She refused to yield.
She did
5.94 meters on her second attempt and 6.17 in her third
and last try.
“I
didn’t know why it had to happen now. I felt I was in
top condition. My coach felt I was in shape to break my
own personal record. But the unfortunate thing
happened,” a teary-eyed Torres, 26, told BusinessMirror
in Filipino.
Her
performance here was her worst in years—way below her
personal best of 6.63 meters. She did not finish dead
last, though. Of the 41 participants, three fouled their
three attempts and had NMs across their names, meaning
No Mark. Four others—from Bermuda, Congo, Trinidad and
Tobago and Belize—could do no better than 6.06.
Brittney
Reese of the United States topped the qualifying from
Group B, Torres’s group, with 6.87, which pale in
comparison to the world record of 7.52 and Olympic
record of 7.40. The top 12 advanced to the event’s
finals.
Team
Philippine doctors—medical head Alejandro Pineda and
orthopedic expert Sonny Odulio—immediately looked into
Torres’s knee at the Team Philippines secretariat clinic
inside the Olympic Village.
“Sonny
and I examined Maris’s [Torres] and she had a mild ilio
tibial band muscle strain in her left knee. But she’s
alright. She would probably be needing some therapy
though,” Odulio told the BusinessMirror.
Torres
said she incurred the injury on the runway as she tried
to pick up speed. “I felt something wrong while on the
runway. Perhaps it was because my left leg had the
pounding and the knee took all the pressure,” she said.
As a
result, she had to adjust her markers 70 cm short of her
normal full run.
“I could
no longer get my maximum speed after that. I already
wanted to cry. My coach [Joseph Sy] asked me if I could
still do it. And I said yes,” she stressed.
“I
really wanted to make a record here. These are the
Olympics. Kung hindi ko itinuloy, parang hindi ako
lumaban! [If I didn’t continue, it is as if I didn’t
put up a fight.”
Torres
is one of two Philippine representatives in athletics
here. Henry Dagmil also competed in long jump, but he,
too, couldn’t match his personal best of 7.99 meters and
settled with 7.58, and also failed to advance to the
men’s finals Saturday.
It
wasn’t the first time the Southeast Asian Games long
jump queen Torres, who had started to compete at 12,
sustained an injury during competition. She hurt her
heel in her first jump in the 2006 Thailand Open. She,
however, booked better numbers of 6.45 there.
“Coach
saw that I was in pain. I couldn’t move my leg normally.
He asked me not only once if I could still do it,” she
said. “Eto na sana ‘yung best opportunity para
sa akin para mag-perform. Nahihiya na ako sa
sarili ko [This was the best opportunity for me to
perform well. I feel ashamed of myself].”
And with
a big fighting heart, Torres went on competing. “Kung
hangga’t kaya talaga, titigil lang kung bali na
[while I still could do it, I will, until my bone
breaks],” added Torres, who held off her tears during
competition and let it all out when it was over.
Torres
was given pain relievers to ease the hurt as she rested
in her cool cozy room in the Village. She had her knee
bandaged, too, to keep it immobile.
Pizza?
She didn’t have them for lunch because she had to rush
to the secretariat clinic, but said she would have them
for dinner. No, she changed her mind, she would have
pizza for merienda. |
