THE 77th installment of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines track and field championships kicked off last Saturday, December 6, at Ultra, Pasig. Both undermanned teams gutted out their opening weekend as the competition gravely improved from last years.
Decathlon
The first day of the competition saw supersenior JB Capinpin go head-to-head with the Far Eastern University’s (FEU) two stars, Janry Ubas and Ian Delos Santos, in the men’s decathlon. Delos Santos was the Season 76 men’s decathlon champion while Ubas was the 2013 junior men’s Philippine decathlon champion.
Day one of the men’s decathlon featured five events, which are the 100m dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and capping it off with the quarter-mile dash (400m).
Capinpin was going neck-to-neck with the two decathlon giants for the first three events. He registered an 11.36 second 100m dash, 6.56 meter long jump and a 9.44 meter shot put which catapulted him to third place.
However, after the high jump, Ubas of FEU massively pulled away from the competition with a jump of 2.04 meters. Capinpin was still holding on to third place, trailing Delos Santos with over 100 points.
After the last event of day one for the men’s decathlon, Capinpin was still at third place with a total aggregate score of 3,677.
During the second day, the decathletes competed in the 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and ended the decathlon with the ever-so grueling 1500m run.
Capinpin started off strong in the hurdles and the discus with him managing to partially solidify his third place position. Horror struck as he committed fouls in the pole vault which merited him zero points.
The competition got intense as the University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) Roque Lesondra grabbed the third place position after the pole vault, registering a vault of 2.80m. At this point, however, the battle for bronze was the show as Ubas and Delos Santos solidified their gold and silver medal positions, respectively, by pulling away from everybody else.
After the javelin throw, Capinpin managed to edge out Lesondra by throwing a tally of 37.47m. Lesondra only managed to throw a 30.14m mark. This gave Capinpin a 60-point lead over Lesondra and merited Capinpin the third place. Capinpin needed to be within 12 seconds of Lesondra in the 1500m run in order to win the bronze medal.
Come the 1500m, Capinpin held tightly on to the pack and tried to maintain a good distance from Lesondra. However, during the last lap, Capinpin started to fade away due to fatigue and Lesondra pulled away slowly. Capinpin finished the race with a time of 5:05–26 seconds away from Lesondra. He finished fourth in the men’s decathlon.
The impressive performance of Capinpin despite the fourth place finish was welcomed with massive applause from the crowd after the 1500m. This was his first ever decathlon competition.
Blue Tracksters
For the rest of the events, the individual 100m dash featured Co-captain Joel Magturo and rookie Leo Valera with the competition stronger than last year. Both sprinters failed to qualify for the finals despite Magturo’s strong 11.25 second finish, which only merited him 11th place. Valera finished with 11.47 seconds that put him in 16th place in the qualifiers.
The men’s shot put managed to uplift the Blue Tracksters as Gaspar Lorenzo, Faisal Tabusalla and Justin Asinas gave an impressive fifth, sixth and seventh place finish for the team, respectively. Lorenzo threw 11.50m, while Tabusalla threw an 11.02m and Asinas throwing 10.34m.
Tabusalla was last year’s bronze medalist for the said event. Had he thrown his 11.58m put from last year, it would have merited him the bronze medal.
The hurdles also showed with promise as Co-captain Maki De Jesus and rookies Rabbi Villanueva and Henry Gonzales were fielded. Super rookie Villanueva was a few milliseconds short of qualifying, with him registering 16.37 seconds that merited a ninth place qualifying finish. Gonzales ranked 11th in the qualifying rounds with a time of 16.59 while De Jesus ranked 14th clocking 16.87 seconds.
The 200m dash also featured a highly competitive field from all schools with last year’s top three finishers still competing. Magturo showed signs of improvement over the past few months especially with his silver medal win in the recently concluded University Games in Iloilo.
Magturo registered a time of 22.89 seconds, 0.01 seconds away from qualifying; he ended up ranking ninth in the qualifying rounds of the 200m dash. Sophomores Mikee Ruiz and Miguel Guevara both had good performances with the training partners registering personal bests in the event. Guevara ranked 15th with a time of 23.23 seconds while Ruiz ranked 18th and sprinted to a 23.54 second finish.
Rookies Rafel Marchadesch and Segis Borja both competed in the men’s 10,000m racewalk. The competition featured last year’s medalists and former juniors division champions.
A stroke of bad luck led to Borja being disqualified in the race after committing three fouls after just only the eighth lap. Marchadesh managed to maintain his form after only registering one foul and ended up finishing the race in sixth place with a time of 1:06:35.02.
Gonzales ended off the opening weekend by qualifying for the men’s long jump with a record of 6.27m. He improved on his qualifying jump to end the day with a jump of 6.35m, earning him the sixth place spot.
The Blue Tracksters are halfway there as more events are coming their way. With Capinpin’s inspiring performance and dedication in the men’s decathlon, expect the team to be rejuvenated and filled with hope again come the third day of competition.
Lady Tracksters
Rookie Kimberly Zulueta was the standout for the opening weekend of the Lady Tracksters. The young sprinter showed promise earlier on in the season and managed to carry it over to the UAAP.
Zulueta managed to qualify for the finals ranking seventh in the 100m dash qualifying round. Supersenior Tricia Severino failed to qualify but managed to register a personal best in the event.
In the finals, Zulueta ran a fast 12.75-second 100m dash and ended up in rank six. She was 0.18 seconds away from a bronze medal finish.
The 800m run also featured a rookie, Betty Marguiles, where she tallied a time of 2:32.
Football and track and field double varsity Julia Sucgang competed in the 5,000m racewalk. She finished eighth overall. It was an impressive performance from the track and field rookie given that this was her first time to ever compete in the event.
The women’s 100m hurdles event unfortunately was met with a tragic loss for the Lady Tracksters, as Team Captain Arianna Rebancos had a bad landing during her warm up runs in the hurdles and was met with injury. She will not be competing in the next few days.
In the 200m dash qualifying rounds, Zulueta was 0.06 seconds from qualifying for the finals. She ranked ninth in the qualifying round with a time of 26.37 seconds. This time would have ranked her sixth in last year’s competition.
As of press time, day three of the competition is ongoing, Tuesday, December 9. Due to Typhoon Ruby, the fourth day will be moved to the morning of December 10 and the fifth day schedule will remain as is – still on the afternoon of December 10 starting at 3 PM.
