Marestella Torres Bags Gold Medal in Asian Athletics Championships in China

 Current Philippine Athletics ace Marestella Torres became the first Filipino in 22 years to win gold medal in the tough and prestigious Asian Athletics Championships when she conquered the long jump event at the Guangdong Olympic Stadium in Guangzhou, China.

The reigning SEA Games champion, registered a remarkable 6.51 meters leap that overshadowed the performance of world-ranked contenders, like world no. 9 Chen Ya Ling of China which finished second with a leap of 6.28 m and Japanese Masumi Sachiko which snatched the bronze with 6.28 m performance.

“This is my season’s best although this is just a warm-up for the SEA Games in Laos next month,” said Torres.

Torres already collared a bronze medal at the 2002 Asian championships and won the Asian Championships. She was also entered in the 2005 World Championships but didn’t make it to the final. Torres’ rousing victory will indeed serves as a big boost for RP athletics. Asian sprint queen Lydia De Vega – Mercado swept the sprint event (the 100m and 200m dash) in the 13^th edition of this yearly event in Singapore.

“I thank Marestella for her feat, which once prove again that we can look forward to better things in Laos,” said Athletics Chief Go Teng Kok.