By June Navarro
Inquirer
ILOILO CITY–Many have tried but no one has come close to approximating the promise shown by former Asian sprint queen Lydia De Vega-Mercado at an early age.
But track officials here believe they have found a De Vega-Mercado-in-the-making after a Filipino-Canadian from Bacolod City powered to two impressive wins in the second day of the Philippine Olympic Festival Visayas Qualifying leg.
Jami Dawn Henares, 15, overwhelmed the field in the 400 meters, clocking a minute and .01 second, then snared another gold in the 200m with a time of 27.2 that caught the attention of Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association technical personnel.
The honor student at Destiny Christian Academy could have been the first triple gold medalist of the games had the charming 5-foot-6 lass ruled the 100m dash the other day.
“I didn’t start well because I wasn’t listening to the starting gun,” said Henares, who lost to Jenelyn Progio of Capiz by a hairline but avenged that defeat in the 200m.
Progio timed 13.435 against Henares’ (13.436) in the 100m.
After ruling the century dash, the 18-year-old Progio went on to bag two more golds in the 100m and 400m hurdles.
“I train her along with La Salle’s (Bacolod) track and field men’s varsity team,” said Frankie Echavarria, Henares’ personal coach.
In all, Capiz took five more golds in athletics.
Joannu Fegarido ruled the boys’ 200m dash, Sharjon Delgado dominated the boys’ 400m hurdles, Hanny Jean Delfin won the 10,000m and Joan Grace Fenitro prevailed in the girls’ shotput for Capiz.
Iloilo struck hard in taekwondo, collecting a total of 19 gold medals, and kept its head high in football, coming back from two goals down to force a 2-2 draw against Cebu.
Christian John Gersanib (finweight), Kevin Cabariban (welter), Keva Labrador (fin), Ryka Bernardo (fly), Ivanna Marie Mabunay (welter), Mario Nepomuceno (bantam), Jon Adjijil (feather), Gabriel Arnigo (fin), Carole Bullon (fin), Rieth Pangham (bantam), Lyn June Salibius (light) scored wins in the juniors division.
Providing the gold for Iloilo in the grade school division were Louvett Uy Deong, Ron Alde Dedoroy, Lester Barcenilla, Nicole Vidallon and Ayanna Benita Galotera.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
CONT..and a runner at the same time, i got stucked with my times and never peaked to a national level. seeing and hearing from news a lot of new and promising athletes who show potentials to be a future champions gives me hope that one day the philippines will be put back in the asian track and field map.i’m just saddened that after a year or two these young athletes never performed the way they were expected to be, some vanish from the scene, judy joy pasaporte who at the age of 13 or 14 during early 90’s run a marathon in 3:05 something which i think if was properly trained and supported could already be running sub 2:35 at a senior level. but where is she now? Aiza Cometa from Southern tagalog who was the toast of palarong pambansa few years ago run the 100m in 14sec at the age of 12, was never heard of again..what’s wrong with the grassroot program the we have? i want to get involve in a program but i dunno how!!
December 7th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
i accidentally opened this blog and i was surprised that there are also other track and field enthusiasts like me. I’m in my late 20’s now and one time become a track and field athlete and a swimmer. my loved for both sports hindered me to be a national caliber. i train swimming in the morning and run in the afternoon for long years before i realized that it’s not possible to be a top caliber swimmer a
December 6th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Pool training is not intended to aid in building speed but in avoiding injuries that can be caused by too much impact when exercising on the ground yet maintaining the form acquired from ground training. Thus by incorporating swimming pool exercises with track training, the muscles are given more time to recover properly, better than training on track alone esp when ample training is needed due to, eg coming competition. Water training lessens the injurious impact on the leg and foot caused by gravity. Exercises that should be incorporated resembles much like a swimmer training his/her feet. Good luck.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Mr Pirie, you are right in saying that we should not have sent a men’s relay team (400m relay) now that Soguilon is injured; sending a team there is a waste of money for PATAFA. Instead, two young male sprinters who will be of use in the future will be good investments for future SEA Games. W/o Soguilon, I think they will run 41 secs+ (I’m scared to say they might even run 42 secs!)which may not be even good for a bronze barring any accidents from the other teams. The Thais will definitely get the gold for men’s 4×100. The Malaysians are likely silver medalists since 3 to 5 of their males sprinters apparently ran 10.5’s in their recent trials. The Singaporeans have been fast improving. Even if we get a bronze, I find investing long term on these kids more beneficial. If they really need Gabito, then they should start thinking of sending him to seminars in athletics coaching techniques. There seems to be a dearth of coaches who will guide the young ones from the provinces as reflected in these kids poor improvements. * Also with regards to Sharon Jizmundo failing to pass the baton to Lerma, may I comment that sharon’s failure to do so seems to have become a stigma to her ability for years (one athlete from the crowd screamed at her ‘ang bobo mo!’ which shocked me.). She was very young then but very promising. I also had an impression that sharon was an unprepared alternate after elma muros for some reason didn’t run the 4×100 after brandishing her comeback to help the team. My impression was, after elma backed out and chose the 4×400 instead, sharon was taken to run elma’s vacated post in 4×100. Thus she didn’t have enough practice to adjust to the team; and running in front of so many people that time, she was nervous and thus failed our expectations. I’ve been reading so many articles of sports writers saying ‘another gold was wasted when she failed to pass the baton,’ but the funny truth is, even if she did pass the baton, the phil women’s 4×100 team would not win. And you know that Mr Pirie, records and history tell that we won’t beat the thais relay team even with Muros and de Vega around unless they get and scientifically train our young athletes like Gintong Alay days (but we have not beaten them in this event even in these days
lol but I think the the gap will diminish. However, its a vicious circle, PATAFA needs solid funding from business groups and from the government and it also needs to sack its own coaches whose athletes under their wings fail to deliver. i’m sorry to say this but this is one way to help Phl athletics long term. A serious revamp of coaches is needed.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:39 am
Pool sessions = awesome found one on the net. Improved my 300m time on Saturday to 34.98et.
Doing Aqua today.
And Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.