Tolentino repays PATAFA trust, breaks Philippine record in 110m hurdles

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association never really knew Filipino-Spanish hurdler John Cabang Tolentino when he sent email messages to the former asking to be given a shot at a national team slot last year.

It’s a good thing they did.

Reciprocating PATAFA’s trust, Tolentino erased the national men’s 110-meter hurdles record in ruling the Campeonato de Esukadi in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain over the weekend in a performance that may have sealed him a spot to the Hangzhou Asian Games-bound national squad.

The 21-year-old Robotics major back home in Madrid clocked 13.65 seconds that erased the 13.78 mark Clinton Bautista recorded a year ago in the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games.

It came just a month after a humble bronze medal finish in the Phnom Penh Games where he clocked 13.86.

If he had done it in the Cambodian capital, Tolentino would have easily seized the gold won and shared by Thai Natthaphon Dansungnoen and Singaporean Ang Chen Xiang.

“Baka hindi lang pang SEA Games, pang Asia,” an awed PATAFA secretary-general and executive director Edward Kho on Monday told The STAR.

Kho recounted how humble Tolentino was when he practically landed on their lap.

“Nag email sa amin ang coach niya. Madali kausap, hindi diva. Lumipad last year para sumali sa weekly relays. The rest is history,” he said.