UAAP Season 77 Men’s Track and Field Day 1 Recap

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It was an exciting first day of competition for the annual UAAP Track and Field championships held in the Philsports Arena Oval in Pasig City. 4-time defending UAAP champion Far Eastern University made a heavy case in their defense as they took home 3 Gold medals on the first day of competition.

With Jomar Angus winning in the 10km run, Brayan Pacheco dominating the shotput, and a masterful sub-11 second performance for Clinton Bautista who won the 100m dash over his teammate and 2^nd generation athlete Isidro Del Prado; the defending champions aren’t just about ready to give up their crown.

Track Events

Angus even went head to head with his University of Sto. Tomas counterpart, Kevin Capangpangan in the last 100m of the 10,000m run. The long distance runner from FEU finished with a time of 33:55.59 seconds while his counterpart from UST barely lost to him by clocking in at 33:56.33 seconds; giving the crowd a treat with one of the best head to head duels for the day. Still showing their dominance in the distance events, the bronze medal finish went to Philip Gongob from FEU as well with a registered time of 34:09.27 seconds.

In the tightly contested 100m dash, the heats were one of the most entertaining qualifying rounds in the sport’s history as it displayed a lot of both old and new faces in the top 8. FEU’s Bautista led the way in the elimination round with a sub-11 second showing of 10.96 seconds. The rest of the top 8 qualifiers all ran under 11.20 seconds, one of the fastest qualifying times in a long time. Romnick Nor from UST ran with a time of 11.04 seconds to put him in the 2^nd spot, 2^nd generation athlete Isidro Del Prado registered 3^rd in the heats with a time of 11.05 seconds, Season 76 100m dash champion Jasper Tanhueco from De La Salle University ran 11.13 seconds to place 4^th, and rounding out the top 5 is University of The Philippine’s Gabriel Soriano who ran the 100m dash with a time of 11.16 seconds. The finals would prove to live up to the hype of the elimination round as Bautista clocked in an even quicker time of 10.91 seconds while his teammate Del Prado almost broke the 11-second barrier with a time of 11.03 seconds. DLSU’s Tanhueco bagged the bronze medal finish, losing by only .08 seconds to Del Prado.

Not to be outdone would be the 800m dash event. The event which a lot of athletes dread due to its blistering pace and equally frightening distance saw the return of an athlete who has placed silver for several times behind legendary distance runner Christopher Ulboc who has graduated into the National Team. UST’s own Elbren Neri topped the list of qualifiers for the 800m finals to be held on day 2 of the competition. Neri’s 1:54.14 second finish was good enough for the top spot. His training partner ran 1:57.62 seconds which would place him in the 2^nd spot while Arlon John Hipona would round up the top 3 with a time of 1:58.56 seconds. With FEU’s Ulboc gone, can Neri finally win that elusive gold medal in the 800m run that has plagued him for the past 2 years? Or will he fall short?

FEU’s Bautista, also contested for another gold medal but lost by a hair against another 2^nd generation athlete and current UAAP record holder Patrick Unso in the 110m high hurdles. In the previous UAAP season, Unso and Bautista went head to head as the two were the only ones who ran sub-15 seconds in the event with Unso outdiving Bautista to be crowned king of the hurdles. This event proved to be one of the most exciting for the day as the two knew that coming into the race all eyes were on them as they had to go head to head once again. With a strong showing from the Junior National Record holder despite a slow start, Unso finished with a time of 14.47 seconds while Bautista only finished .07 seconds behind the hurdler from De La Salle, son of Philippine Track and Field legend Renato Unso.

Field Events

In the lone individual field event for the day, FEU’s Pacheco threw 1 meter more than the rest of the pack with a masterful 12.85 meter throw. The closest to his 12-meter throw was UP’s Michael Baguisa with a throw of 11.69 meters. Baguisa’s teammate; Elijah Guevarra threw 11.57 meters for the bronze medal finish. Everyone in the top 8 threw at least 10.34 meters but the top 6 all threw past the 11-meter mark.

Decathlon Update

Even in the Decathlon FEU proved to be dominant through Season 76 pole vault, high jump, and long jump champion Janry Ubas who garnered 3691 points after 5 events. Ubas, who is on steady pace to break former tamaraw, Jason Cid’s record; posted impressive results on the decathlon’s first day of competition. In a class all by himself, Ubas managed to top 4 out of the 5 events on the first day of competition. With a time of 11.15 seconds in the 100m dash, his time was good enough to break into the top 8 of competition in the individual 100m dash. The only event he didn’t manage to top was the 400m dash and he lost it to teammate and training partner; Mark Ian De Los Santos. De Los Santos kept Ubas company in the 3000-point mark with a total of 3,225 points but not far behind was Ateneo de Manila University’s Joseph Bernard Capinpin with 3,038 points. Day 2 will be just as jam-packed for these athletes as they will have to participate in at least 5 more events on top of their individual events. 

Still a Toss-Up

Even with what seemed like a dominant day for FEU, 3 other schools are still in the running for a silver medal finish or even snatch the top spot from FEU. DLSU is still in the running for the top spot with 1 gold medal and 1 bronze medal, each coming in the 110m high hurdes and 100m dash. Another team with a total of 2 medals is UP and with more throwing events coming up, expect their throwers to haul in more silverware and the rest of the team to contribute in other events for the team based in Diliman, Quezon City. With just 1 day of competition in the books, UST still has a chance to crack the top 3 with most of the events they are heavily favored in will still unravel in the next few days with the individual jumps and throws coming up. With other teams still in the running, this could still be a long 4 days of competition for the boys from Morayta.

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