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.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Yehey!!!!!! Mr Henry Dagmil did a 7.99meters just last June 7, 2008. Really, really close to 8.05 olympic B standard. Just about 2 1/2 inches more and his a legal Olympian! Mr Dagmil, reading that result really made my day! This is also a new Philippine record for long jump! I wish he makes it more in asian grand prix.
June 8th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Henry Dagmil threw in everything including the kitchen sink in his last outing in Los Angeles. He jumped 7.99m just 6cm shy of the Olympic qualifier of 8.05m. But improved his personal best of 7.87m (SEA Games record in Thailand 2005) by 12cm!!!. Dagmil jump of 7.99m means he climbs up from the bottom of the IAAF World Rankings in his event, the only athlete in Philippine Team to feature among the worlds elite.
He may have some more meets if he decides to compete in the Asian Grand Prix, it is now all upto PATAFA and the PSC to give him the thumbs up to extend his qualifying time for the olympic berth.
June 7th, 2008 at 4:15 am
I heard Klarrizze Posadas recently ran 100m, 12.79, 200m 25.9 and 400m, 1:00:9. Were these all electronic? I am thrilled to here more of her in athletics (and not in basketball; she’s not gonna be a star in basketball I wish she realizes this). I was hoping though she can come close soon to Lydia de Vega’s junior times. I think Jojo should behave like Tatang de Vega- a stiff diciplinarian. I also think Brent is not a good school for Klarrizze. Her track superstardom is just around the corner only if she will train really really really hard.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Bong - I had word from the man himself that Waldy is not coming back from injury, apparently its very severe.
Sheena injured herself in the hurdles, its unlikely she will qualify for the olympics now. Its a case of too little too late now. I think she was on the way to running 13.4s in the sea games.
Bong why would she need to run 200m???? thats well over the 100m you run in Hurdles. Doing some 120s or 150s in training would sort out the problem. 200m seem like an awful long way for a 100m Hurdler and you also run a curve in a 200m which doesn’t really help at all in a hurdles race. Perhaps running some 110s or 120s on the straight would be better.
Luville who??? Ruffa who???? seriously never heard of them.
Seriously though i was very impressed with Del Prado Jr. 49.6s the other day in the 400m at the Palaro. What is he like 16???, i was running 52.0s when i was that age. Im pritty sure that Del sr. is very proud. How fast was he at 16??? was he even running????
I ended up with 49.5 in our time trials a week or so ago during winter for 400m.
Still im looking very forward to racing against young Romnick Herida of FEU over my pet event the 200m.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Torres 6.19m, Deb Sampson 4.10m, Dagmil 7.66m, & Sheena 14.49!