Leonard Grospe 3rd All Time in Phi Mens High Jump

Leonard Grospe 3rd All-Time in Phi Mens High Jump

Leonard Grospe had a massive improvement on his personal best in the Mens High Jump. Grospe leaped 2.15m at the PATAFA Weekly Relays on October 16. Grospe who has been a member of the national training pool since 2019, with no luck at the last two SEA Games in securing a medal, clearly won the event at Pasig on Sunday. And his mark of 2.15m was a substantial improvement on his previous best of 2.07m on February 23 at Baguio. 

Grospe beat Ernie Calipay and Shane Patrick Tolentino of FEU who both cleared big personal bests of 2.08m. Calipay and Tolentino previous bests were 2.00m and 2.03m. Such was the quality of the field that national silver medalist Brian Kent Celeste (VMUF) (The current Palaro Record Holder) wound up 4th with 2.00m.

Grospe performance of 2.15m was the 3rd best-ever Performance by a Filipino Male. Only his coach National Record Holder Sean Guevarra (2.17m) and National Junior Record Holder Luis Juico (2.16m) have ever jumped higher. 2014 National Champion Tyler Ruiz had registered 2.17m, but that was before he got a Filipino passport so his best jump with the Philippines was 2.13m. 

Calipay and Tolentino both barged into the Top 10 all-time list in 8th and 9th the same leaps as Ferdinand Sulit and Janry Ubas. They pushed out Eugene Caluag and Reycris Capispisan from the Top 10 all-time lists.

Tolentino performance moves him to #2 all-time in the Junior Rankings as he is born Sep 3-2003. As his last competition will be the Weekly Relay Finals on November 19-20. It’s highly unlikely Luis Juico’s long-standing junior record of 2.16m has stood for 35 years will be challenged.

Only Two Athletes rank Top 10 in South East Asia during Weekly Relays

The mark ranks Grospe 8th in South East Asia for 2022. It also ties the bronze medal mark of the last SEA Games at 2.15m which qualifies Grospe for the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia. With 9 weeks of the Weekly Relays, complete Grospe along with Janry Ubas in Long Jump are the only two athletes who have performances good enough to rank in the Top 10 in their events for South East Asia during the 2022 Weekly Relays. After Agamanos performance of 12.98m was invalidated by the PATAFA (more on this later).

The 6’1 Grospe originally hails from Aurora Province. He is a 3rd-year physical education student at Mapua University. The objective now is to try and get his coach’s record in the finals on November 19-20. The Philippines has never won a gold medal in the Men’s High Jump at SEA Games. Sean Guevarra and Luis Juico both won silver medals, while Ruiz did not make the podium. 

Leading up to the event Grospe cleared 2.12m in practice and an impressive 1.93m PB in Scissor jump according to his Coach Sean Guevarra’s Facebook Page.

 

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