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 23rd, 2007 at 7:44 am
Bong, Oldman Alex Gabito is 33′ he has been around for 100 years.
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:40 am
Marestella is damn strong over starts, she has beaten me over starts before and i’m a sub 11 100m and a sub 22 200m sprinter. She is really strong she squats about 180kg and can hang clean 60kg in sets of 6. She is one of the strongest females in the country.
November 23rd, 2007 at 5:37 am
I agree with you that Honey Joy is wasting here time at High Performance camp. She did run 12.18 which is just as good or not better than 24.81 last year.
Please do not over rule filipino’s who are based overseas. Breanne Bumanlag and Krizia Apelar are more talented than Jami Dawn Henares. Krizia Apelar came 3rd in the Womens 100m/200m racing again adults when she was 16/17 at the 2006 olympic festival.
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Bong mate the Philippine records are 10.49 and 21.17 for the 100 and 200. The 10.45 was wind assisted. Soguilon could be out for a while.
I think Romnick Herida is running really well probably better than Jizmundo and Jami Dawn out of the Juniors he did 10.4 the other day. I think he should be taking Gabito’s spot very soon.
Im going to incorporate swimming into my training program here in Australia. See you all next season ‘I will be back’
November 21st, 2007 at 3:00 am
cont…important for her, 100m an event she had not won. So she trained for that and FINALLY won in 1987! Lydia knew she can not go beyond being asia’s fastest woman bec I think mentally she was not ready and unfortunately NEVER became ready; Ashford and the east Germans were running 10.8’s in early 80’s, in 1981 Helsinki world athletics she could only manage to get through the quarters. For Keon to call her close to being lazy and undisciplined unfortunately were all true in my opinion). Imagine if she has the discipline of Elma Muros, her whipping girl in 200m- from 25.2 to 24.00 (elec) secs lifetime improvement, Lydia might have ran 22.3 secs in 200m or Elena Ganosa (AFP) from 12.57 to 11.9 (elec), Lydia might have ran 11.1 in the 80’s! She was inactive most of 88, 89 and tried to cme back in 1990 after giving birth. In her absence Elma Muros was the Phil athletics darling doing 100m (11.80), 200m (24.2), 400m (55.+), 400m hurdles (58 to 57 secs), and 100m hurdles (13.8) (Elma when I saw her in 1985, I thought she’s lazy too. But she eventually woke up and became the Elma Muros,the STAR of discipline, we know today after Lydia took the long jump from her in 1987. Elma became a lionness, training in so many events with Posadas. By 1989, when Elma was finally back in Patafa’s fold, she returned that favor by jumping 6.52 meters, 1989). In 1991 Lydia managed to get back just in time for 100m but didn’t have the endurance for a fast 200m and lost by a hairline. In 1993 I thought she will make it big in AAA Manila after running 23.35 in 200m in SEA Games same year and better that time finally but there was a major sports problm here that led to a high sports official getting sacked. I hope that answered your question sir.