Delicaño, Candelario capture gold medals in Taiwan Open

Long jump specialist Joebert Delicaño and 400-meter runner Ernie Candelario bagged the gold medals in their respective divisions last Saturday in the Taiwan Open, one of four major tournaments lined up for Filipino tracksters in their preparations for this year’s Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Delicaño, showing no ill effects of a hamstring injury that sidelined him last year, ruled his event with a leap of 7.46 meters, beating a Korean entry by two centimeters and a Taiwanese bet by 15 centimeters. Candelario topped the 400-meter race with a clocking of 47.36 seconds.

Another Filipino runner, Jimar Aying, settled for silver behind Candelario just 29 hundredths of a second behind. Geralyn Amondoron also won a bronze for the Philippines in the women’s 400-meter run.

The two other Filipino bets who competed but failed to win a medal were women’s long jump hopeful Lerma Bulauitan, who finished fourth behind two Vietnamese rivals and a Taiwanese, and Nixon Mas, who saw action in the shotput event.

Bulauitan had a 6.15-meter leap which was off her personal best of 6.40 meters, while Mas fared miserably in the shotput since his original event, the discus throw, was scheduled Sunday. — Abac Cordero