Track Beauty of the Week: Amina Ferguen
Amina Ferguen is this week’s track beauty!
The German-Algerian athlete is an up and coming international-level sprint hurdler. Although based in Germany, Ferguen competes for Algeria. In the last couple of years, Ferguen has risen steadily in terms of performance, winning regional medals in the 100m hurdles.
Photos from bouhouche.com and Menosultra’s Flickr
At the 2010 African Championships, Ferguen stopped the clock at 13.87s to grab third place. A year later, the sprint hurdler placed a narrow fourth at the 2011 All-Africa Games, but clocked a significantly better time of 13.58s. She fared much better at the Pan-Arab Games held a few months later with her silver medal performance.
Ferguen is bristling with potential. She had a banner year in 2011, setting personal bests in both the 60m hurdles (8.49s) and the 100m hurdles (13.38sw). She also set her legal 100m hurdles personal best in 2011, clocking 13.46s behind Daegu World Championships veteran, Cindy Roleder. According to All-Athletics.com, Ferguen was ranked 89th in the 100m hurdles in 2011 – a respectable position for a breakout year that’s sure to come.
Thinking Things Over (21 January 2012)
I was supposed to train in Ultra last Saturday, but it turned out that the entire venue was unable for public use the entire day. Not wanting to let the day go to waste, I went to Moro to do some sprints. It was a fortuitous turn of events as my former team was also training in the same venue.
It was a welcome sight to see familiar faces (although this number is steadily dwindling). I had a good chat with Coach Igor Quodala prior to starting my workout. The University track & field grassroots program has grown by leaps and bounds, apparently. Since I had an ABL game scheduled the next day, I opted for a light workout. I did a few reps of hurdle walkovers, the first time I worked over the hurdles in 2012.
I’ve been hounded yet again by thoughts of retirement the past few months. Under the circumstances, I just could not see the point of pursuing my far-flung athletics dreams. In a sense, I was in limbo. One part of me wants to keep the dream alive while the other yearns for something bigger than hurdling. Nevertheless, hanging up my spikes is out of the question. The past couple of years has been enlightening, reinforcing the fact that the good old athletics training routine is an excellent way to get fit – competitive aspirations aside.
But then again, the scheme of things tend to nudge one’s decisions to a particular direction.
During the rest phase of my 4x60m sprinting workout, my former college coach remarked “Jobs, puwede pa (You still have it).” For someone who trains alone and struggles to mix and match what scant athletics knowledge, this was a heartwarming compliment. Come to think of it, I’ve put so much work in this season’s GPP. At least I’ve seemed to regain some measure of my old strength.
For the nth time, let me say that I’m not retiring yet. As for the question of hurdling, I still have time to think things over.
ABL 2012 Game 2: Falling Short
It was good to be back at the Blue Eagle Gym again. This was AHS 4D 2003′s first game at the decades old stadium since the last match of the ill-fated Season 2010. Since it was a Sunday night, the gym was almost deserted, save for a few basketball diehards and some early birds. It was an ominous return to such a storied venue.
For the first two quarters, the team seemed to match up with the bigger lineup of Team Sabino quite well. The daredevil drives of Paolo Rosales (5 points, 6 rebounds) and Merrill Lazo’s (20 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) dagger treys kept the opposing team’s lead to a manageable five points in some stretches. Adi Dimaliwat (made a couple of three-point baskets in the most opportune of times. Yayo Puno and Velden Lim returned from a one-game absence to man the front-line with their athleticism, hustle and game smarts.
The team, despite the absence of main man Ryan Agas, even grabbed the lead in the first half.
Things started to crumble in the third quarter, as a foul-troubled Merrill was forced to ride the bench for a few minutes. All of a sudden, there was a gaping hole in the middle. The fired-up 6’4 behemoth Johann Uichico took advantage of Merrill’s temporary absence, wreaking havoc with his accurate short stabs and numerous drives. At the start of the fourth quarter, the opposing team’s lead had ballooned to as large as eight points.
Midway into the last period, our error prone team squandered golden chances to narrow the deficit. We were unable to run consistent plays and missed supposedly easy point blank shots. The imposing front line of Team Sabino exacerbated our offensive woes, as the opposing team grabbed a massive 54 rebounds against AHS 4D 2003′s measly 42. Despite making more three-pointers and notching a 78.4% field goal percentage, the team faltered in the end game.
There was one seemingly infinite stretch when we couldn’t seem to force the ball out of Team Sabino’s possession. For two long minutes, the ball stayed at the wrong side of the court, as our opponents grabbed offensive rebounds at will.
Despite a last ditch gasp to trim the deficit, the final buzzer sounded with the team behind by a heartbreaking five points, 48-53.
AHS 2003 Week 3 Stats (from the ABL site)
Track Beauty of the Week: Megumi Kinukawa 絹川 愛
Megumi Kinukawa 絹川 愛 is this week’s track beauty!
Kinukawa was a talented youngster. As a high school senior, she competed at the 2007 Osaka World Championships, reaching the 10,000m run final. She finished in 14th place, clocking 32:45.19 – more than a minute slower than her then personal best of 31:35.27.
Photos from 47news.jp and plaza.rakuten.co.jp
According to a Kahoku.co.jp report translated by Japan Running News, the promising Japanese succumbed to a series of illnesses and a stress fracture. Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she caught an unknown, flu-like virus, ruining her dreams of a maiden Olympic appearance.
Read: “A Tough Road to Complete Recovery”
She has been sidelined by her frail condition for two years. In 2010, however, she returned to top level competition but was hard-pressed to replicate her razor sharp form. She finally barged into national consciousness again in 2011, wresting the Japanese 5,000m run title. Four years since Osaka, Kinukawa made a return to the World Championships in Daegu.
Additional links:
Fresh Air! (18 January 2012)
In the past two weeks, Moro has been devoid of its usual denizens. At night, when I usually train, the badminton and basketball courts seemed like eerie graveyards. The cavernous expanse of the indoor gym was dimly lit. Aside from a handful of PT patients, employees and the ever so diligent jogger/former Ateneo President Fr. Ben Nebres, Moro was practically deserted.
Hence, I kept the training sessions mercifully short. I could not last more than an hour and a half in those circumstances anyway! The speed endurance routine I’ve been doing left little room for boredom. Somehow, all the panting and lactic acid had blocked off the monotony.
Thankfully, I trained with a former high school teammate a couple of days back. It was refreshing to actually talk to someone real for a change. I’ve had enough quality time with my imaginary training buddies! Having a friend nearby takes a lot of the weight off my back. I’ve been training alone for so long that I’ve almost forgotten how it feels to have teammates.
Then it hit me. I know quite a lot of people, former track athletes at that, willing to hit the track to stay in shape or compete again. I am not that alone after all. Who knows? Maybe in a few months’ time, an informal club could take root.
UAAP 74 Athletics Schedule
Here’s the lineup of events for this year’s UAAP Athletics Championships. The four-day event will be held in Ultra on 9-12 February 2012.
Click here to download the PDF version
Thank you to Coach Igor Quodala and EJ Valera for providing the schedule!
Dauntless
People say that practice makes perfect. This certainly applies to sprint hurdling.
To successfully sprint over the barriers, the athlete should have respectable flat out speed and a certain level of technical prowess. More importantly, one must be fearless. I’m the type of athlete who puts a premium on working hard. Since I wasn’t blessed with natural hurdling talent, there were no shortcuts. I had to spend hours honing my hurdling form. As I mastered the technique, my confidence – and my being fearless, grew.
But there’s the rub. Gone are the days when I could spend three hours on the track. With my 8am to 5pm job, my training time has been reduced to the bare minimum. I’ve been spending less and less time over the hurdles, thanks to the distance between the track, my home and my office. This, in turn, has sapped a good measure of my confidence. Fear started to set it. Until I regain my spunk and swagger, I could not possibly better my modest achievements of the past years.
Once a hurdler feels fear at facing the barriers, everything suddenly becomes problematic. In my opinion, being dauntless defines the hurdler from other athletes. This courage, this seemingly wanton disregard for caution is what makes the event glisten and sparkle. The lack of fear, coupled with the proper technique and speed, makes hurdling akin to an art form.
Track Beauty of the Week: Barbara Hernando
Barbara Hernando is this week’s track beauty!
The heptathlete is the 2011 Spanish heptathlon and pentathlon champion. The multi-events specialist has a personal best of 5,583 points in the heptathlon from 2009 and 4,381 points in the pentathlon, with the latter being the Spanish indoor national record.
Photos from Mirror Box Studios/kmapostcards.wordpress.com and nostresport.com
Hernando seems to fare better in indoor competition, thanks to her sound hurdling skills and flat-out speed. En route to her Spanish pentathlon record, Hernando notched respectable perfomances of 8.58s in the 60m hurdles, 1.72m in the high jump and 6.14m in the long jump.
The Castellon-born athlete won bronze at the 2010 Ibero-American Games, where she scored a competitive 5,314 points. However, she failed to replicate her peformance at the Barcelona European Championships held about a month later, withdrawing right before the final event. It was a disappointing outcome, considering the fact that Bernardo had set personal records in the shot put, high jump and the 100m hurdles in front of her homecrowd.
With London 2012 just around the corner, Hernando is within sight to better the Spanish heptathlon record of Maria Peinado (5,380 points) from 2002, should she stay clear of injury.
Olympic Non-Participation
To be able to qualify for Olympic-level athletics, the aspiring athlete must meet a particular set of performance standards in specific span of time. For the men’s 100m dash, in example, there are the “A” and “B” standards, 10.18s and 10.24s, respectively. Ralph Soguilon’s 100m dash national record at 10.45s is more than two-tenths of a second slower than the “B” standard – light years away from an outright Olympic slot. Such is the case for most of our national records.
Amongst our elite athletes, Marestella Torres is the lone exception. En route to winning the 2011 SEA Games Long Jump gold, Torres went beyond the 6.65m “B” standard by six centimeters. Her 6.71m national record is more than enough for an outright Olympic slot.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a story about Marestella Torres and Rene Herrera being given the mandatory athletics slots* for the 2012 London Olympics. I was particularly disturbed by the nonchalant tone. There was hardly any mention of the Olympic entry standards, save for single line from Go Teng Kok. Has Philippine athletics sunk so low that not qualifying for an Olympic slot has become the norm?
It’s sad to say that the answer is a resounding yes. Filipino track & field athletes have fallen so far behind the curve. Blame it on the sports officials, the media, the Philippine propensity for basketball or corruption: the fact remains that we are at the bottom of the athletics heap. If our homegrown boxers, swimmers, archers and taekwondo jins can bag Olympic berths, I’m sure our track & field athletes (with ample support, of course) can do the same.
One can harp about bagging dozens of medals in the Southeast Asian Games or dominating the general standings, even (think about the 2005 Manila SEA Games). But this doesn’t necessarily translate into Olympic success – or at the very least, Olympic participation. News of the Philippines fielding the smallest Olympic contingent in recent memory has been met with indifference. In contrast, the SEA Games debacle went, for a time, into the national headlines.
So long as our athletes struggle to even qualify for the world’s most prestigious sporting spectacle – as long as we prioritize low-key regional meets over the biggest stage of sport – I’m afraid that our dream of Olympic Gold will be no more than a far-flung fantasy.
* – Torres’ slot could be given to Melvin Guarte, should Torres’ 6.71m is formally recognized as meeting the “B” standard.
Looking Through Old Lenses
Back in the heyday of my basketball addiction – in 2000 – my dad got me conspicuously awkward Rec Specs goggles. He refused my pleas to get contact lenses, arguing that the little things would make my eyes weak through prolonged use. Since I was fifteen years old and practically penniless, I had no choice but to follow suit. My love for the hoops game far outweighed aesthetic considerations.
Read: “The Woes of a Myopic Athlete”
Looking back, I must have been a peculiar sight, with my reed-thin physique and the nerdy sports goggles. I could feel the sticky looks whenever I wore the frame. When I went to the official’s table during one game, a man snidely asked, “Are you going swimming?” Before games and practices, I tried to delay wearing the goggles for as long as possible. In one particular game, I even feigned a bum stomach to avoid my crush seeing me wear those visually-disturbing glasses.
- My Old Rec Specs: The Mantis
Since then, I’ve put much emphasis on my sporting image. As a track & field athlete, I spent time and cash to appear dashingly appropriate. Never again did I wear my Rec Specs, opting to don my wire-framed glasses in all of my track races – until I joined the ABL.
But still, I was adamant. I settled for a pair of hardy, all-plastic horn-rimmed glasses held firmly in place by an elastic strap. In the past two seasons, I bought two pairs of these improvised goggles, with the first one breaking after a hard scuffle in the painted area. Despite it being rugged to a certain degree, the design wasn’t entirely safe.
- Improvised!
I did a cursory Goggle search for fancier, sporty-looking goggles. It turns out that Rec Specs has a new line of sleek, basketball-certified eye-wear. I tried looking for those models in the local shops, but came out empty-handed. A stroke of luck happened a week before the ABL opening game. I stumbled upon a dark-blue framed MX 21. Originally costing a hefty Php 6,000.00, the 50% discount on the lone remaining pair prompted me to buy the frame on the spot.
- Rec Specs MX 21
Even if the fit is a bit tight (it was designed for kids and teens!), I grew accustomed to the snugness. To save cash, I had the old polycarbonate lenses of my nerdy looking Rec Specs fitted into my new acquisition.
I felt a bit nostalgic as I wore my new MX 21 and looked through my old Rec Specs lenses. It was akin to traveling to those awkward yet carefree days, where passion ran deep. I momentarily cringed at the thought of wearing Rec Spec goggles again. But then again, I’ve grown much more confident the past few years. I was a far cry from the jittery fifteen year old .
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it feels great to wear goggles again!
ABL 2012 Game 1: Come From Behind
Five minutes before tip-off time, our side of the basketball court was devoid of the usual faces. Only JR Calimbas, Ryan Agas, Merrill Lazo and I were there. As the clock ticked, the prospect of defaulting on our season opener slowly became reality. Paolo Rosales’ last minute arrival finally completed the starting five.
All throughout the precocious pre-game impasse, I was admittedly irked by the absence of the other players. We pride ourselves in winning an ABL championship without non-D2003 reinforcements and yet, there we were struggling to complete a five-man squad. It seemed as if everything went downhill after the magical 2009 season.
We were bombarded by accurate outside snipes from 4H 2003′s Earl Bello. Inside the paint, our heftier opponents controlled the boards and made crucial point-blank conversions. In the first two quarters, the opposing team led by as much as eight points as we struggled to keep pace with a depleted line-up. The daredevil fast breaks of Ryan and Ros kept the team within striking distance. But we couldn’t seem to pare the lead.
With lactic acid dangerously reaching the thresholds of pain, our much awaited reinforcements finally arrived. The sweet-shooting Adi Dimaliwat was the spark plug. Adi’s accurate shots from three-point country enabled the squad wrest the lead for the first time in the game. Dimaliwat was unstoppable, as he unleashed an electric display of shooting prowess, nailing three out of his eight attempted three-pointers. Adi’s field goal percentage was an immaculate 50%.
As the latter quarters unraveled, the fab four of Ryan, Merrill, Adi and Ros wreaked havoc on the open court. The defense held the repeated forays of the opposing team. Gang rebounding proved pivotal for the team in the face of wider and taller opponents. In a noteworthy twist, the smallest man on court, JR, notched a team-high seven rebounds! Despite the dearth in size, D2003 grabbed a game high 27 rebounds against the opposing team’s 26.
Adi and Ryan both registered a game-high of thirteen points, with the latter grabbing five rebounds. Merrill chipped in four assists, while Ros contributed eleven points.
Agas’ hard fall in the last four minutes of the game threatened to derail our path to the “W.” But the front line upped the ante until the visibly shaken former UAAP star dug deep to return to the hard court. When the final buzzer sounded, we were ahead by a barely comfortable five points, 39-34.
It was an auspicious opening to the ABL 2012 season. Despite the absence of several key players, the team still managed to eke out a hard-fought, come-from-behind win – the first time we won an opening game in four ABL seasons. It was a far-cry from the 50-point shellacking we took in the final game of ABL 2011.
AHS 2003 Week 1 Stats (from the ABL site)
Track Beauty of the Week: Heather Dorniden-Kampf
Heather Dorniden-Kampf is this week’s track beauty!
Chances are, you’ve probably seen the video where Dorniden-Kampf, then a collegiate athlete, fell in the middle of a 600m indoor race and got up to snatch victory at the end. It was an awe-inspiring race that reminded me of the great Eric Liddell and the movie “Chariots of Fire.”
Read: “Heather Dorniden: Running with Passion” here
Photos from mshsl.org and gorosemount.com
Kampf has made the big leap from college-level track & field to professional competition. In 2011, the University of Minnesota alumna participated in several top notch meets such as the Pan Am Championships and the Diamond League. The 24-year old has personal bests of 2:00.41 and 4:12.09 in the 800m and 1500m runs. These are highly-competitive times that place her amongst the top performers of 2011.
Read: “An Interview with Heather Kampf of Team USA Minnesota”
There’s more to Kampf than being an internet sensation. With the determination she displayed at that infamous video, the talented American middle distance runner is poised for bigger things.
Philippine Athletics’ New Home
In the past months, there has been talk of converting the Philsports (Ultra) football field into artificial turf. Such a move would have been disastrous for the Manila-based athletics scene – the home of the nation’s best collegiate squads and national team. With Rizal Memorial hosting an ever-increasing number of football matches, holding an honest-to-goodness track & field competition at the venue is next to impossible.
Although there a multitude of athletics stadia in the country, the looming absence of a dedicated track in the nation’s capital s speaks volumes of the sport’s insignificance. The loss of Ultra would have been the coup de grace to a dying sport.
Thanks to the head honchos of the PSC, the FIFA artificial turf project will be moved to Rizal Memorial instead of Ultra. “Athletics will benefit from the move as it will also find a permanent home at the PhilSports field,” said PSC Commisioner Jolly Gomez in an Inquirer article. “It’s a win-win situation for all parties.
There’s hope for Philippine track & field after all!
Stoked! (4 January 2012)
I’ve been feeling down the past few days. I opted to rest and stay home on Tuesday night, instead of going to Ultra for my weekly hurdles workout. Last night, I was dead set on doing the same, laid back routine. I’ve already eaten dinner and was comfortably perched in front of the boob tube, watching the Powerade – Rain or Shine PBA semifinals.
I’ve told myself many times that I should have taken my childhood basketball lessons seriously. Who knows what could have happened, had I started early and channeled much passion into the hoops game. But past is past. It’s too late to be a competitive pro baller. And I’m way too short. If I didn’t suck at high school basketball, I wouldn’t have shifted to track.
Nevertheless, watching that game gave me a much needed jolt. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was only 8:00 PM. There was ample time to do speed endurance workouts. For a split second, I hesitated. I turned on the TV and went for a quick shower.
A few minutes later, I was off to the track. I stayed at the track for around one hour. The crisp, night air was invigorating. I was particularly proud of the last rep. I wasn’t all that tired, but I was feeling lazy. I wanted to just stop and go home. I slapped some sense into myself and put on my game face. All throughout the last 200m sprint, I imagined myself running the last leg of the 4x400m relay, shadowing one of the Borlee brothers. At the imaginary homestretch of the fantasy race, I took the outer lanes as I successfully passed a non-existent competitor. I summoned the last vestiges of strength to reach the invisible tape signifying the finish line.
Despite subjecting myself to the most difficult workout I’ve had in the nascent 2012 season, I felt alive with exhilaration after the lung-busting, 7x200m sprint, 200m jog workout. I was breathing heavily and sweating profusely; it was the first time I did something that intense in recent memory.
I’ve had a great workout!
Anna Yaroshchuk (Hanna Yaroshchuk Ханна Ярощук) is this week’s track beauty!
The Ukrainian is a rising star in intermediate hurdling. Yaroshchuk had a breakout year in 2011, as she bagged the European U23 title in Ostrava and the World University Games gold in Shenzen. The lanky hurdler ran a lifetime’s best of 54.77s in Ostrava, to deny compatriot Hanna Tittemet the gold.
- Photo from tetimes.com
At the Daegu World Championships, the in-form hurdler made it as far as the semifinals, stopping the clock at 55.09s.
Interestingly, the Ukrainian started off as a half-lap sprinter, before making the big switch to the intermediate hurdles just in time for the 2008 World Junior Championships, where Yaroshchuk placed a competitive 6th (58.43s) in the finals.
Yaroshchuk has improved by leaps and bounds in the past three years since her 58.00s personal best in Bydgoszcz. Should she maintain her momentum and keep injury free, a finals appearance – or even a podium finish – is probable.
