William Morrison retained his shot put title with a heave of 18.14 meters for the Philippines’ second gold in athletics in the 31st Southeast Asian Games at the My Dinh National Stadium on Sunday.
With her mother Marlene watching from the sidelines, the 25-year-old Morrison set the pace as early as his second heave of 17.84 meters.
For good measure, he slowly increased his throws to 17.97 and then at 18.14 to completely obliterate the field, which included eventual runner-up Jakkapat Noisri of Thailand (17.32) Thailand and third placer Malaysia’s Muhammad Ziyad Bin Zolkefli (17.20).
Morrison’s heave was way off the 18.35 he set when he captured the shot put gold during the 2019 Philippine SEA Games, but it was enough to avert a gold-medal shutout in athletics for the day.
While the athletics contingent celebrated the country’s second gold at the My Dinh National Stadium, which came a day after world-class Ernest John Obiena topped the pole vault with a new SEA Games mark of 5.46 meters, there was concern all around as Philippine record holder John Albert Mantua, the country’s second entry in shot put, injured his right leg after his fifth throw.
Mantua was brought out of the field on a stretcher and was taken to a hospital with a suspected severe leg sprain.
Also on Saturday, Janry Ubas settled for the silver medal in the men’s long jump with a leap of 7.73 meters.
Ubas, who was running third after his penultimate jump, clinched that second-best leap right in his final try.
Vietnam’s Trong Nguyen Tien won the gold in 7.8 meters.
