Buenavista cops gold in 3,000 meters

Eduardo Buenavista, John Lozada, Marestella Torres and unheralded Domingo Manata registered morale-boosting victories of their own on a day the foreigners won all but one of the 15 events contested yesterday in the PSC-PCSO Manila leg of the Asian Grand Prix at the Rizal Memorial Complex.

Unmindful of his previous setbacks in the first two legs in India and Thailand, Buenavista got back at Indian tormentor Shivananda by topping the 3,000 meters with a time of 8:17.14 to record the country’s only win. After two triumphs, Shivananda settled for second place with 8:22.14 while another local bet, Rene Rivera, finished third with 8:37.54.

Lozada, for his part, fought hard against Korea’s Lee Jae Hoon before losing steam in the homestretch to finish second with a time of 1:47.77, less than a second behind the Korean’s 1:47.06.

Despite the heartbreaker of a loss, Lozada accomplished what others failed to do in the last two decades as he eclipsed the long-standing national record of 1:48.37 set by Isidro del Prado in 1982.

"Hindi ko ine-expect na ganito kaganda ang itatakbo ko kaya masayang-masaya ako," said Lozada, who took home $1,000 for his feat and a possible slot in Busan, South Korea after almost meeting the qualifying Asiad standard of 1:47.00.

Torres, on the other hand, finished third behind Kazakhstan’s Yelena Kasheheyeva (6.50) and India’s Anju George (6.45) to record her first triumph over RP’s reigning long jump champion Lerma Bulauitan.

The Occidental Mindoro native was actually tied with Bulauitan on a jump of 6.38 meters but the 23-year-old Torres had fewer attempts to knock out this year’s long jump gold medal winner.

Manata, a member of the national training pool, made his presence felt after he finished third in the 400-m hurdles with a time of 53.18. He, however, ate dust getting at third as Kuwait’s Bader Aman Al Fulaij (49.96) and Kazakhstan’s Yevgeny Meleschenko (50.34) emerged on top.

The visiting teams’ juggernaut was highlighted by India’s Bahadur Singh Sagoo’s victory in men’s shotput. Sagoo heaved a distance of 19.30 to surpass the current Asiad mark of 19.26 Chinese Liu Hao set in the 1994 Hiroshima Games.