UAAP Season 77 Women’s Track and Field Day 2 Recap

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Day Two of the Women’s UAAP Track and Field Championships was met with personal bests from all of the events. The University of Santo Tomas (UST) continued to dominate the competition ending their second day rally with an aggregate medal tally of 11 medals constituting of 4 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 4 bronze medals.

Track Events

The afternoon session kicked off with the women’s 800m final. Top seed runner Jennyrose Rosales of the University of the East (UE) started off strong from gun start and took the lead early on in the race. Come the 700m mark however, signs of fatigue were becoming more and more evident per stride and her teammate Neslee Angco capitalized on this situation. Angco sprinted the last 100m to finish with a time of 2:12.55 which is about 3-4 seconds away from the bronze medal time from the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games 2013. Louielyn Pamatian of UST almost threatened Rosales of the silver medal coming to the finish line but Rosales held her position tightly and finished with a time of 2:13.40 while Pamatian finished hers with 2:13.97, just half a second short of beating Rosales.

The women’s 800m performance has been one of the fastest ones in recent years. The top three finishers hit massive personal bests (PBs) and are only seconds away from the SEA Games bronze medal standard which is based from 2013.

Two hours later came the women’s 200m dash qualifying round which still featured 800m gold and silver medalists Angco and Rosales. The two UE superstars did not show signs of fatigue as both registered impressive times in the heats.

Rosales ranked number one in the heats with a qualifying time of 25.23 seconds while her schoolmate Angco sprinted to a 25.52 second third place qualifying finish. The 100m gold, silver, and bronze medalists from UST all qualified for the 200m also. Eloiza Luzon ranked second in the qualifying round with a time of 25.36 seconds while her schoolmates Glaiza Salcedo and Michelle Loterte ranked fourth and fifth with times of 25.70 and 25.99 seconds respectively. Aldee Faith Denuyo, who is also from UST, clocked 26.19 seconds to solidify UST’s sprint dominance with all four of their entries qualifying for the finals.

After the boys’ 3,000m run which started after the 200m qualifying rounds came the women’s 10,000m run. It was a long and competitive race as the pack was tight and in unison. However, UST’s Jila Dela Rosa managed to pull through with the victory after clocking 40:56.80 to finish the 25-lap race with another gold medal for UST. Catherine Bristol and Mae Ann Gongob from both the Far Eastern University (FEU) both raced it out but with Bristol running away with the silver medal with a time of 41:06.82. Gongob finished around two seconds slower with a time of 41:08.34.

An hour long wait was again present in the arena as the audience awaited the start of the 200m dash finals. Audience members could vaguely see some of the finalists already preparing in the warm-up area as the 10,000m run was ongoing.

In the finals, it was Rosales who was back with a vengeance after losing her 100m dash title to run away with the gold medal with a time of 24.73 seconds – just some milliseconds away from her own UAAP record of 24.73 seconds. Luzon tried to chase Rosales down in the home stretch (the last 100m) but Rosales held on ever so tightly to win that gold. Luzon eventually finished with a time of 24.95 seconds. Angco, the 800m gold medalist from earlier in the day, managed to edge out 100m silver and bronze medalists Salcedo and Loterte to nab the bronze medal with a time of 25.54 seconds; Salcedo and Loterte both finished fourth and fifth with both sprinters registering 25.55 seconds. Salcedo was awarded the fourth place finish after the photo finish review. The rankings from the heats were coincidentally exactly the same from the finals but with the finals being run significantly faster. The 200m dash was the final event of the evening for the women’s division.

Field Events

The Javelin Throw was the only throwing event for the day which featured three former Palarong Pambansa champions. The defending women’s javelin throw champion and also the 2012 Palarong Pambansa javelin throw champion Evalyn Palabrica pulled off with a major victory with a PB throw of 48.25 meters (m) which shattered the old record of 46.12m set by Faith Cabrera who was also from FEU.

Palabrica’s schoolmate and 2013 Palarong Pambansa Champion Jerremay Rubias nabbed the bronze medal from Jenelyn Arle of the University of the Philippines with a throw of 42.70m. Arle who was the 2012 Palarong Pambansa javelin throw bronze medalist settled for the bronze medal with a throw of 40.87m. All three medalists were the only ones who threw more than 40 meters. In fourth place came 2014 Palarong Pambansa Champion Zianne Faith Cabrera who was 2m short of a bronze medal with a throw of 38.20m.

With the two UAAP Season 76 Triple Jump gold and silver medalists graduating, the battle was anyone’s game. Season 76 bronze medalist Peralita Jra Ynot of UE failed to improve on last year’s mark and only managed to jump 11.35m which was 0.2m short of last year’s podium finish record. This year’s competition is tougher so even if she managed to jump her 11.55m mark from last year, it would have merited her only a fifth place finish. The strong field featured a 12.20m jump which is 0.7m farther than last year’s. The golden jump was made by Chairy Palermo of UST which gave UST yet another gold medal. Angelica Janda and Kristie Kaye Vinco grabbed the silver and bronze medal positions for FEU with jumps of 11.83m and 11.79m respectively.

Medal Tally After Day 2

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