2015 SEA Games Philippine Relays

2015 SEA Games Philippine Relays

Heroic Philippines Womens 4×100 ends up last in 45.64 (rev 1)

June 12, 2015

The Philippine Women’s 4×100 of Katherine Khay Santos, Princess Joy Griffey, Kyla Richardson, and Kayla Richardson were unable to land a podium finish at the 2015 SEA Games. Hence the Women’s 4×100 clocked 45.64 which was the last of the six entries.

Khay Santos led off a brilliant first leg and passed the baton to Griffey in the fourth position.

While Griffey ran a phenomenal back straight. Also, Griffey was clearly in better shape than her fifth-place finish in the 100 Meters on the first day. Yet she had withdrawn from the 200 meters to preserve herself for the relay. Hence Griffey looking for redemption hunted down Thailand and Vietnam. And was slightly behind Zulkifili when they reached the third runner

While Kyla did not take off well and Griffey nearly ran into her. At 50m Kyla strained her hamstrings and started to fall back to the last place. When the baton finally got into Kayla Richardson’s hands the 100m Champion had a big gap of 10m behind the fifth-place team. She ran after her with all she had and caught up to the fifth but the race was gone.

The team clocked 45.64 which is the third fastest time ever by the Philippines just behind the 45.29 National Record set by R. Sinoro, E. Punelas, E. Ganosa, and L. De Vega at the 1991 SEA Games in Manila. With very minimal passing changes and a strain on the third runner. This shows great promise in the years to come.. The Philippines has not fielded a women’s relay team since the 2005 SEA Games, at that time the four runners didn’t finish when the last runner dropped the baton. The Philippines has never won the women’s 4×100 relay in the history of the games.

Games Record for Thailand, Philippines Womens 4×100 6th

Thailand took the gold in a games record of 44.28, Vietnam was silver in 44.79 and Malaysia took bronze in 45.41. 45.64 which would have landed bronze last SEA Games was the last place. This means the standard of this event is increasing dramatically due to world-class foreign coaching, more international exposure, and passing practice. For the Philippines to place in the top three in 2017, we will need a team that can run below 45 seconds.

The good thing is we now have a women’s relay team which will undoubtedly inspire and motivate our next generation of women sprinters for many years to come.

2015 SEA Games Throw Back: Philippine Men’s 4×400 3:06.84 is only enough for a Silver.

 June 12, 2015

The Philippine Men’s 4×400 quartet of Johan Caido, Edgardo Alejan, Ryan Bigyan, and Archand Bagsit were unlucky to lose the SEA Game title that The Philippines had held for the last two SEA Games (2011, 2013). On what can be described as the most epic 4×400 battles in SEA Games History the Philippines was narrowly run down by the Thai’s 3:06.81 to 3:06.84.

Caido and Bigyan were new members of the relay replacing Del Prado and Nierras who helped win the gold in a time of 3:09.32 in Myanmar two years ago. Caido led off and was first to change the baton, which gave Alejan a decent lead, with Alejan extending this lead to Bigyan who passed the baton about a meter clear to Bagsit. The Thai runner started to catch up just after the 200m mark. And it was a grueling battle the last 150m with the Thai just nipping Bagsit in a hard-to-spot photo finish. Both runners raised their arms as they both thought they had won.

The Philippine Record stands at 3:06.59, and the time of 3:06.84 is the second fastest time ever recorded by the Philippines.

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