Stuart captures 3rd gold

STA. CRUZ, Laguna—Filipino-American throwing marvel Caleb Stuart picked up an unexpected third gold medal in the men’s discus even as Ernest John Obiena fell a tad short of surpassing the Southeast Asian Games mark in pole vault yesterday at the end of the 2015 Philippine National Open-Invitational Athletics Championships here.

Stuart, imposing at 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds, hurled the metal disc to a distance of 48.17 meters on his sixth and last throw despite the damp conditions at the Laguna Sports Complex and became the most successful entry in the competition after earlier victories in his favorite hammer throw and shot put.

Visibly delighted with the outcome despite a token opposition, Stuart is now considering competing in the discus in the 28th Southeast Asian Games in Singapore on June 5 to 16.

“I’m going to talk to the coaches and see if I could compete in all three,” said Stuart, a gold prospect in both the hammer and shot put.

He easily prevailed in the discus over Sean Santamina (40.87m) and John Mantua (39.10m).

But the 24-year-old University of California-Riverside alumnus will have to match the SEA Games bronze-medal standard of 51.96 in the discus to be able to compete in Singapore. His personal best stands at 49.96m.

“I’ll just train as hard as I could with the time that I have before the SEA Games,” said Stuart, who will train in the United States soon under trainer Shaun McGinley.

The son of pole vault great Emerson Obiena, EJ easily cleared 5 meters to pocket the gold in his pet event but couldn’t surpass the SEA Games mark of 5.21 of Thai Kreeta Sintawacheewa, set in 2009 in Laos.

“I will need a longer and stiffer pole when I go to the SEA Games,” said the 19-year-old electronics communications engineering major at UST.

Made of fiber glass, an excellent 16-foot pole is worth about P30,000.

The 6-foot-1, 150 lb Obiena earlier matched Kreeta’s mark after erasing the 22-year-old national record of Edward Lasquette (5.0m) during the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association weekly relays last year.

NCAA champion John Rey Mabuyao of Perpetual Help placed second (4.30m) and the older Obiena took the bronze in 4.20m at the close of the four-day meet.

Karen Janario won her fourth gold medal after anchoring Leyte Sports Academy to victory in the girls’ 4x400m relay. She earlier prevailed in the 400m, 100m hurdles and 200m.

Obiena, who landed fourth in the 2013 Burma (Myanmar) Games, trained for 90 days in Formia, Italy, last year under renowned Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov, who has produced the likes of world champions Sergey Bubka, Yelena Isinbayeva and Giuseppe Gibilisco.

Obiena will get a chance to surpass the SEA Games record in the Singapore Open on March 28  and 29, according to Patafa president Philip Ella Juico.

Archand Christian Bagsit, the defending SEA Games 400m champion, ruled the men’s 200m for his second gold while multiple Palaro gold medalist Jomar Udtohan completed a golden sprint double in the junior rank.

Also winning on the final day were Junrey Bano (400m hurdles), Felyn Dolloso (triple jump), Malaysian Muhd Ashraf Rahman (high jump), Akter Tamanna of Bangladesh (200m), Filipino-American Marisa Smith (1500m), Mervin Guarte (1500m) and Rosie Villarito (javelin).

The national open was backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and hosted by Laguna Gov. Ramil Hernandez.

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