Louis, Laurance top 100m dash

BOTH with Filipino blood in their veins, Singapore's Marc Brian Louis and Jessica Laurance from Australia emerged as the fastest man and woman in the Philippine Athletics Championships at the New Clark City Athletic Stadium in Capas, Tarlac.

The Singapore national sprint champion Louis, whose mother, Julie Ann Adsuara, hails from Moncada, Tarlac, won a close and exciting race in the men's century dash, clocking 10.45 seconds to nose out Filam Sport's Miguel Anthony Rosario (10.53).

Singaporean Daryl Tan (10.62) rounded out the podium finishers.

Still aching from the bad fall suffered near the finish line in ruling the women's 200-meter (m) run last Thursday, Kristina Knott scratched from the 100 m, paving the way for Laurance, whose mom is a Filipina, to handily top the run with a time of 11.46 seconds.

UAAP Season 86 sprint double gold medalist Lianne Pama of University of Santo Tomas (11.78) and TAFT's Jandra Delotavo (12.85) took the silver and bronze, respectively, in the championships serving as part of the qualifiers for national team for the 33rd Thailand Southeast Asian Games in December and the Asian Youth Games in Manama, Bahrain, in October for the Philippine junior campaigners.

After what he described as a rough start, Elija Cole finally got into groove once he had warmed up to dominate the men's pole vault for the third consecutive time, jumping 5.25 m.