HANOI, Vietnam — Christine Hallasgo swears the silver medal she was awarded Thursday for finishing second in the women’s marathon of the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games glows like gold.
Unable to train properly for over two years owing to the pandemic, Hallasgo still managed to run side-by-side with the eventual gold medal winner from Indonesia.
But given the lack of preparation, Hallasgo faded towards the end en route to a clocking of two hours, 56 minutes and seven seconds.
Indonesian Odekta Naibaho Elvina submitted the winning time o 2:55.28. Third place honors went to Vietnamese Ngoc How Hoang Thi, who timed in at 2:57.35.
“Even if I lacked training, I am still thankful for getting the silver medal. I was able to put up a good fight,” said Hallasgo, who came into the event as the defending champion.
Hallasgo said her last competition was the 2020 Milo Marathon.
Then the world was plunged into a lockdown and Hallasgo could not get the right training schedule.
Despite the difficulties, the 29-year-old from Bukindon persevered and it showed during the race.
“I was able to show that I didn’t give up my SEA Games title. In the last 2.5 kilometers, the two other runners were left behind and it was me and the Indonesian.”
Hallasgo said cramps forced her to down as the pain began to creep up her legs.
Hallasgo’s silver closed out athletics’ campaign and the Philippines goes home with a respectable tally of five gold, seven silver and 14 bronze medals.
Last time in the Philippines, athletics had a tally of 11-8-8.
The goodies include pole vaulter EJ Obiena, hurdlers Eric Cray (400) and Clinton Bautista (110), shot putter Willie Morrison and sprinter Kayla Richardson.
Athletics head Philip Juico insists the output is still respectable despite several factors.
“I counted 25 of our athletes, including those in relays and those winning in different events. If I am correct, that’s a little more than 50 percent productivity,” Juico said.
“We have five new Philippine records and one new SEA Games record,” he added.
The Philippines still missed the services of Kristina Knott in the 100, 200 and 4×100-meter runs.
The Guermali brothers — Said and Yacine — were not in attendance, too. They could have prepped up Philippines hopes in the 800 and 1500 and the 5000.
Nathalie Uy’s heartbreaking showing in the pole vault where she is the defending champion because of an injury, jet lag and pole transport issues also affected her game.
Date: May 20, 2022 | By: Nick Giongco | Newspaper: Tribune | Source: https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2022/05/20/hallasgo-wins-gold-like-silver/
