FILIPINO Leonard Grospe delivered a record-setting effort to make the finals of the men’s high jump of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan over the weekend.
The 21-year-old Mr. Grospe jumped to 2.14 meters that not only catapulted him to the final round being played at press time but also erased a nine-year-old national indoor mark set by Tyler Ruiz in Naperville, United States.
For the feat, he earned a shot at a medal and surpassing the record as he was competing against India’s Sarvesh Anil Kushare, China’s Wang Zhen, Oman’s Fatak Bait Jaboob, Pakistan’s Aharoz Khan, South Korea’s Wong Sanghyeok, Syria’s Majd Eddin Ghazal and Japan’s Ryoichi Akamatsu and Yuto Seko at press time.
Fil-Spanish John Cabang, in contrast, failed to make the finals of the men’s 60m hurdles after winding up 10th in the heats with a clocking of 7.96 seconds.
The 21-year-old Mr. Cabang, whose campaign here was self-funded to prove his worth to the national team, was supposed to be joined by Eric Cray but the latter withdrew after suffering a minor strain on his groin muscles in the 400m heats the day before.
Mr. Cabang is hoping to make the national squad especially in his pet 110m hurdles where he owns a personal best 13.74 seconds, which is faster than the national mark of 13.78 set by Clinton Bautista in copping last year’s Hanoi Southeast Asian Games. — Joey Villar