‘Jesus following Tyrone’s footsteps’

Northern Marinas Athletics development officer Elias Rangamar said Jesus Iguel’s sub-12 century dash in the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships is a great building block in the two-sporter’s initiation to athletics.

Iguel, who ran the 100m in a time of 11.71 last Wednesday in Bydgoszcz, Poland, only started training in track this year, and according to Rangamar, the 19-year-old Kagman High School student is well on his way to following in the footsteps of Tyrone Omar.

Omar is the CNMI’s 100m king and, like Iguel, also plays baseball. In fact, Iguel is part of the Asia-Pacific Big League All-Star team that advanced to the 2008 World Series in Easley, South Carolina.

“Other than Tyrone I think that’s one of the fastest junior times we’ve every had. That’s his first off-island competition. He only started training in track two or three months ago. I think he’s going in the right direction just like how Tyrone started. He’s actually following Tyrone’s footsteps. They’re both baseball players coming in. He’s progressing OK and I’m pretty sure he will eventually put his time down to where Tyrone is,” said Rangamar in an interview with the Saipan Tribune last night.

The NMA development officer added that Iguel will banner the CNMI’s hopes in the 2010 Micronesian Games.

“Hopefully by the Micronesian Games [Jesus will peak]. That’s what we’re looking at. He’s committed to the Games along with his brothers—Luis and Juan. It (2010 Micro Games) is going to be loaded with Iguel brothers.”

Iguel recorded the 11.71—his new personal best—last Wednesday while running in heat 1 of lane 9. He had a reaction time of 0.194 in the World Junior Championships

The performance broke the 11.82 he registered during the recent 2008 Oceania Grand Prix held here on Saipan. Iguel previously ran the 100m in 11.5 during the McDonald’s All-Schools Meet last month, but that was using a hand timer.

Iguel joined other Oceania athletes that saw action in Day 1 of the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships.

According to the Oceania Athletics Association website, the first athlete to hit the track was New Zealand’s Sarah McSweeney, who finished 10th in heat 2 of the 3000m steeplechase in the time of 10:44.07.

Shot putter Emanuele Fuamatu of Australia had a great qualifying performance with the third best of the day—19.28m. In the final he threw 19.11m to finish ninth.

The two Australian discus throwers, Andrew Welch (52.88m) and Andrew Peska (52.29m) did not progress to the final.

It was mixed results for Oceania in the men’s 400m, as Aussie Kurt Mulcahy won his heat in a time of 47.35.

Fiji’s Isoa Me, however, was down on his Saipan performance and was eighth in his heat in the time of 49.40.

In the women’s 400m Angeline Blackburn of Australia easily won her heat in 53.82—a personal best—to advance to the semifinal.

Many of Oceania’s athletes were in action in the 100m heats. The standout from Oceania in the women’s 100m was Australia’s Melissa Breen who advanced to the next round by finishing second in heat 5 in the time of 11.66.

Nauru’s Dana Thoma, who only got her Polish visa in the nick of time, came eighth in heat 2 in the time of 13.80 and Papua New Guinea’s Shirley Vunatup came ninth in heat 8 in the time of 13.58.

The men’s 100m heats saw seven other islanders joining Iguel in the event with David Ambler from New Zealand winning his heat in the personal best time of 10.58.

The best of the islanders was the experienced Adison Alfred from the Solomon Islands. His time was 11.19 seconds. Adison has already competed at the 2006 World Juniors in Beijing, the 2007 Youth Championships in Ostrava, and the 2007 Pacific Games in Apia.

The rest of the islanders were Thomas Slowinski (Tahiti) with 11.42 seconds, Gordon Heather (Cook Islands) 11.57, Emile Nisap (Vanuatu) 11.64, Tim Natua (Kiribati) 11.88, Dayne O’Hara (Norfolk Islands) 12.03, and Jeffrey Tago (American Samoa) 13.18.

Australia’s James Kaan, meanwhile, qualified for the semifinal of the 800m with a third place in his heat (1:50.28).

Countryman Zoe Timmers also qualified for the final of the high jump with a qualifying height of 1.81m, but teammate Kate Shierlaw failed to progress with a throw of 47.98m in the women’s javelin.

There were mixed results for Australia in the women’s 800m heats, with Trychelle Kingdom finishing the second fastest with a time of 2:07.77, but Sianne Toemoe (2:09.48) failed to advance. Kiwi Angela Smit (2:08.15) qualified for the semifinals.

Ryan Gregson of Australia came third in his heat of the 1500m in a time of 3:46.82, qualifying for the semifinal. Fellow Aussie Craig Huffer was not so lucky with his time of 3:50.90.

Breen (11.70) and Ambler (10.63) failed to make to the final of their respective 100m events. Both finished third in their semi-final.

Many more Oceania athletes saw action on Day 2 yesterday of the Championships, including Samoa’s Margaret Satupai in the shot put and Guam’s Kenneth Karosich in the the 400m hurdles.