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 11th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
lastly: What a waste of money, airfare and time for the 4×100 men’s relay team! Sorry.
December 11th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Korat SEA Games:
What a mess for so many tracksters!!! Only the performance of Henry Dagmil was noteworthy here…jumping 7.87 twice meant he can jump further. I wish he doesn’t rest this xmas and incorporate swimming in his training to avoid injuries during continuous intensive training and finally reach 8.05 meters. Julius Nierras 400m time is good. The Javelin thrower also did good. The steeplechaser did good too but the time is poor, 8:55 :C Marestella Torres jump is poor, If Wassana the thai heptathlete, could focus in the long jump for this games she might have jumped farther and won (She can jump 6.30m and run 57 secs in 400mh and do heptathlon, wow!). Sharon Jizmundo is sooooooo disappointing. I feel sorry for Sheena Atilano, but avoiding injuries during training and competition should have been part of her preparation, running 100m dash was ill-advised knwing that she has no chance at all against the Thais even before the competition. I find Milgar’s performance okay too inspite of winning silver (a low 59). Maybe she should also be sent to US as a replacement to Atilano, she may be a good investment due to her height and dedication to run 400m which requires speed and endurance. Winning five golds isn’t really that bad if the times or their performances can survive in the Asian level. Unfortunately, most of our tracksters, throwers and jumpers won’t land here in the top 3 except maybe for Henry. I wish PATAFA can work on this, that it is not really the number of athletes in their pool but the quality; we have to think beyond winning in the SEA Games level, then maybe PATAFA’s budget will suffice. For now i feel really, really sad.
December 11th, 2007 at 9:42 am
What a jump from Dagmil 7.87m. Philippines still only 5 medals, im predicting one definatley from Fresnido in Javelin and possibly Nierras in the 400m. Either Nierras defends the dominance of Filipino Mens 400m or Zaiful of Malaysia will regain the title he won 8 long years ago.
December 8th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Bong, The results of the sea games prove it was a waste of time sending Jizmundo. She performed even worse than the last sea games. 12.49???? PATAFA put down 11.85 as her PB. She finished last out of 10. From what i have observed she hasnt improved since the last sea games and this time shows a decline in performance.
Sheena actually deserved to be in the 100m cos she ran a 11.96 PB. She didnt make up some random performance.
I hope Sheena can race her favourite event the hurdles she was down as DNF in the 100m.
The 4×4 who i thought were going to be silver because they were without Aing. Ended up 3rd and Manipol was 4th in the 5k. Thats 2 golds lost for Mr. Go.
December 8th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Bong, The results of the sea games prove it was a waste of time sending Jizmundo. She performed even worse than the last sea games. 12.49???? PATAFA put down 11.85 as her PB. She finished last out of 10. From what i have observed she hasnt improved since the last sea games and this time shows a decline in performance.
Sheena actually deserved to be in the 100m cos she ran a 11.96 PB. She didnt make up some random performance.
I hope Sheena can race her favourite event the hurdles she was down as DNF in the 100m.
The 4×4 who i thought were going to be silver because they were without Aing. Ended up 3rd and Manipol was 4th in the 5k. Thats 2 golds lost for Mr. Go.