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.
November 13th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Many thanks for these people for making Phil athletics fun this year, as of October,2007:
1. Sheena Atilano- for her dramatic improvement in 100 meter hurdles from 14.4 to 13.65secs. WOW!
2 Ralph Soguilon- for lowering further the 100m (10.45 na ba?) and 200m phil records (21.1 secs? I forgot the exact time). But I am happy that finally our 100m and 200m dash men’s records are faster than the 100m and 200m women’s world record. Dati kasi our men’s 10.56 is embarrassing compared to the 10.49 of Florence (US female sprinter) and our 21.44 of Del Prado is slower than Florence’s 21.37 (21.39 ba? Makalilimutin na talaga). LOL But I am saddened by his injury. Get well soon Waldy.
3. Mary Grace Milgar is back! I wish she can do better than her 55.6 secs in 400m and 59 something secs in 400m hurdles. She was described one time as an “future asian games beater” by Jojo Posadas. But til now still not happened. To be that star she must work hard (swim in between to avoid injuries) and run 55 sec in 400m hurdles and 52.5 in 400m. Whew! That’s a lot of hard work. But I am happy to see her again.
4. Klarrizze Posadas, Isidro del Prado, jr and Renato Unso,jr.- I am all smiles to hear that they are following their parents footsteps. I hope I will see them win in my lifetime.
5. Jami Dawn Henares- I am intrigued by the build-up of POF for this girl. But I think she CAN be the next Phil Track Star but that will all depend on her and her determination to succeed. But my wish is that she will not be like Merily Teodosio whom I have not almost heard in 2007 after her 6 golds in POF2006, juniors(except for a silver or bronze in last month). I think we need a very strong junior training center for PATAFA to take care of these talents.
Just this til now.
November 13th, 2007 at 1:26 am
To PATAFA:
I think you made a wrong decision of sending Alex Gabito as a replacement for the injured Ralph Soguilon. Alex being 32 has already reached his limit in 100m. In fact I had an impression that he will be sent bec of favoritism (since her wife is now a PATAFA coach; I admire Lerma and have nothing against her). I think since we are sending anyway athletes who are not qualified to approximate the bronze standard at the minimum, we should have sent young deserving juniors instead, 17 or 18yo. I’ve been an ardent follower of Phil athletics for 30 years and I hope Mr Gabito will prove me wrong in the SEA Games.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:51 am
To Jami Dawn Henares and Sharon Jizmundo: Now that I’ve mentioned continuous improvement I think I better say something about this and how to apply this in sprints, I think these 2 girls are likely to be the top filipina sprinters soon if they will only train hard. It’s if you think you’ve reached your peak (after getting the official timing), but still you will continue to train harder in spite of the fact that the body says di ko na talaga kaya. An example is when de vega ran 11.43 then in 1987 asian championships, then she felt she must win the 100m dash in 1987 SEA Games bec ironically at that time, although she was dubbed Asia’s fastest woman, she hadn’t won a gold in 100 m dash yet (in 1981 she was not an entry; in 1983, she was nipped at the finish line by Walappa Pinji, in 1985 itwas the thais who dominated, Sripet and Srithoa), so right afterthe AAA the next competition then was the SEA games 87 and I think Lydia and Tatang must have felt they must break this jinx of losing in 100m dash inthe SEA Games. So she trained harder and pushed herself further, thus produced incredible times in 100 dash in 1987 SEA Games, an 11.31 sec in heats and an 11.28 in the finals (AAA and SEA games 87 were a mere a month apart). Del Prado did the same in 400m when he set his 400m Phil record of 45.57; weeks before he set this he first lowered his time of 46.24 to 46.19 andthen lowered it further one more time (i forgot) and to the 45.57! All these happend in span of 4 to 8 weeks. To avoid injury try incorporating swimming inyour training so that hindi lagi pounded ang feet nyo. But don’t play in the pool. You must work really your legs under water. Doing weights can do the trick of adding speed also ( by doing upper body exercises like bench press). But since you are too young wag muna. Baka Mabansot lang kayo. You need to have a very determined mind to be able to do this. remember that to think is to create. If you think you can bethe fastest woman in the world you can be if you dream and work hard for it. I was surprised that one of the fastest woman sprinters in100 meters (i think she won in 1992 olympics) has in her records a height of mere 5′4”! I think you guys can do the same. If you will do something in your life time, might as well become the best of it. Good Luck.
November 12th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Erratum: days before she turned 17 (and not 16yo in reference to Lydia de Vega at the SEA Games in Manila 81). Sorry, I am already old to remember all these records by memory. /bong
November 12th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
It reminds me of when Lydia at 16 in an asian atheltics meet in Japan, she ran 24.5 electronic electronic and was dubbed by the japanese ‘the flying girl from bulacan’. And also days before she turned 16 at Sea games 1981 in Manila she did an amazing 23.54 secs in 200m. I hope Henares will become like that in the future. With her times now…still way, way far. But she must still in her mind the japanese way of continuous improvement.