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.

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.

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)

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:

Wikipedia profile

JAAF profile

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.

Click here to download the PDF version

Thank you to Coach Igor Quodala and EJ Valera for providing the schedule!

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.

]]> http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/dauntless/feed/ 0 hurdler49 http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/track-beauty-of-the-week-barbara-hernando/ http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/track-beauty-of-the-week-barbara-hernando/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 02:24:50 +0000 hurdler49 http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/?p=4147 ]]> 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.

]]> http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/track-beauty-of-the-week-barbara-hernando/feed/ 0 hurdler49 http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/olympic-non-participation/ http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/olympic-non-participation/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:14:11 +0000 hurdler49 http://hurdler49.wordpress.com/?p=4141 ]]> 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.

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.

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.

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.

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!