A six-player Philippine athletics team left for Astana, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Feb. 8, to compete in the prestigious Asian Indoor Athletics Championships happening on Feb. 10 to 12.
Fil-American Olympian Eric Cray, who owns two national records, spearheads the small cast composed of Janry Ubas, Sarah Dequinan, Harry Diones, Leonard Grospe and Fil-Spaniard national team prospect John Cabang Tolentino in the meet which is expected to draw more than 500 athletes from 31 countries.
Cray will compete in the men’s 60 meters, Ubas in men’s long jump and heptathlon, Dequinan in women’s pentathlon, Grospe in men's high jump and Tolentino in men’s 60m hurdles.
Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) secretary general Edward Kho and national team coach Dario de Rosas accompany the squad.
Aside from seven Southeast Asian Games gold medals, the 34-year-old Cray also boasts of a silver medal in the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in the same event in 2017.
He hopes to eclipse his silver medal finish in the 2016 edition held in Doha, Qatar.
From the initial 17-player list, Kho said they had to trim down the team's composition down to five athletes due to the steep plane fare and aircraft issues.
Among those who weren’t able to join the squad are world-class pole vaulter EJ Obiena and another pole vaulter in Hokket de los Santos as no aircraft from the transit point to Astana is able to load poles.
Obiena was supposed to come from Europe and de los Santos from Manila.
Instead, Obiena is currently lined up in the Orlen Copernicus Cup in Torun, Poland where he would be competing with fellow Olympians like Thiago Braz of Brazil, Ben Broeders of Belgium, hometown bet Pawel Wojciechowski and Dutch stars Menno Vloon and Rutger Koppelaar, to name a few.
Still, Kho is optimistic that the team will deliver its best in its first high-level international competition for this year.