Lavandia turns back the clock

MANILA, Philippines — Filipina javelin great Erlinda Lavandia scooped up four gold medals and the Best Athlete of Field Events award to lead a bountiful harvest for Team Phl in the Singapore Masters Athletics’ 40th Anniversary Track and Field tourney over the weekend at Bokit Gombak Stadium in Singapore.

Competing in the women’s 65-above category, Lavandia ruled her pet event as she threw the spear to 25.65 meters on her first try to handily beat Indonesian Julia Jacob (14.15m), and Sri Lankan pair J.A. Jasmin (12.66m) and E.N.L. Jayanthi (10.45m).

The 66-year-old Lavandia duplicated the golden performance in the discus, shot put and hammer competitions to cement her status as queen of throwing events in the two-day trackfest.

She submitted a 18.99m for the discus mint over Jasmin (15.38m) and Jacob (12.70m) while annexing the diadems in shot put with 7.25m at the expense of Jacob (5.35m) and hammer with 20.81m.