Francis Obiena topped the boys’ pole vault on Tuesday to prevent a gold medal shutout for the Philippines in the 12th Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships that ended on Tuesday at the Ilagan City Sports Complex in Isabela.
Coming out of a family with a strong pole vaulting pedigree, Obiena, 17, cleared 4.00 meters for a golden finish in the final event of the eight-nation event that also served as tryouts for future members of the national team.
Singaporean Saciin Esan Maran booked 3.80 meters to grab the silver medal, while Filipino John Emmanuel Reyes made 3.40 meters for the bronze medal.
Obiena’s feat gave the Philippines its only gold medal in the event presented by the City of Ilagan and sponsored by Ayala Corp. with Milo, Philippine Sports Commission and International Amateur Athletics Federation as co-presentors.
It was a dramatic finale for Obiena as he booked a new personal best of 4.35 meters in his final jump, much to the delight of the big crowd that showed up to support the home squad.
“This one is for the country,” said the Grade 12 student at Chang Kai Sheik whose father, Edward, holds the pole vault record in the National Collegiate Athletic Association and is a decathlon bronze medalist in the Southeast Asian Games.
His uncle, Emerson, is a silver medalist in the SEA Games while his cousin, 21-year-old Ernest John, is billed as one of the country’s brightest hopes in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 who is now training in Italy under Olympic legend Vitaly Petrov.
“I was trying to seize up my Singaporean opponent in the final stretch. But when he failed to clear the bar at four meters, I knew I could make it,” Obiena said. “I just tried to attempt 4.35 meters to somehow overcome my personal best of 4.30 meters.”
With Obiena’s late-tourney heroics, the Philippines shut down its campaign in this tourney that also has Foton Pilipinas, UCPB Gen and Run Rio as minor sponsors at sixth place with one gold, nine silver and 15 bronze medals. Vietnam was overall champion with 13 gold and eight silver medals.
Palarong Pambansa standouts Jessel Lumapas and John Carlo Yuzon, meanwhile, settled for podium finishes in their respective events also on Tuesday.
Lumapas finished second in the girls’ 400 meters and settled for the bronze in the 200 meters, while Yuzon bagged bronze in the boys’ 200 meters in the age-group meet that also served as tryouts for future members of the national team.
A Grade 10 student at Paliparan National High School in Cavite, Lumapas clocked 58.94 seconds, a heartbeat away from the 58.16 seconds tallied by Thi Hong Han Le of Vietnam who claimed the gold in the 400.
Lumapas tried to regain her bearing in the 200 later in the day but her time of 26.02 seconds was not enough to topple Nor Aliyah Abd Rahman of Malaysia, who tallied 25.25 seconds to win the gold medal. Thi Hoa Duong of Vietnam registered 25.68 seconds to settle for the silver.
Probably one of the best athletes coming out of Ilagan City, Yuzon clocked 22.79 seconds to settle for the bronze medal. Kittipoom Khotsara of Thailand won gold in 22.30 seconds and Muhammad Solihin Jamali of Malaysia got silver in 22.46 seconds.