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Dagmil offered P2.2-m bonus |
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Written by Staff
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Saturday, 16 August 2008 13:05 |
 BEIJING—A thousand-dollar bonus if he breaches the 8-meter mark. Another $49,000 if he makes it to the finals.
Small incentives, perhaps, but realistic enough for long jumper Henry Dagmil, who leaps with the giants in the 29th Olympic Games at the iconic Bird’s Nest here.
“We know it is very difficult to get a medal here,” athletics president Go Teng Kok told Standard Today. “But in our own little way, we are offering these incentives, which I think are realistic and achievable.”
Dagmil, the Southeast Asian Games’ top long jumper, has a personal best of 7.99 meters, a mere .01 meter short of the $1,000 reward Go is dangling before him.
“If he makes the final 8, it becomes sweeter. The Patafa (Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association) will reward him $50,000 (roughly P2.2 million),” said Go. “Kung bronze naman, ibang usapan na ’yan, syempre, mas malaki ’yan.”
But the task will be tough for the US-trained, SEA Games record holder. He will be facing opponents, who are used to leaping 8 meters or more, including Louis Tsatoumas of Greece (8.66) and Cuba’s Ibrahim Carmelo (8.46).
The world record of 8.95 meters by American Colin Powell, achieved in the 1991 the world championships in Tokyo, and the Olympic mark of 8.9 meters by Bob Beamon in the 1968 Mexico games, are still untouched to this day.
But Dagmil is unfazed.
“If I do 8.20 then I could perhaps reach the finals,” he said. “In long jump, a push here and a flex there could help you pull off surprises.” Marestella Torres, Dagmil’s fellow SEA Games gold medalist in long jump, will be plunging into action on Tuesday, with the hope of also bettering her personal best of 6.63 meters.
Dagmil, who is from South Cotabato, and Torres, have been here since Aug. 6, two days before the games’ opening ceremonies. The two, who made it to the Olympics after they were given compulsory entries by the International Association of Athletics Federations, are accompanied here by coach Joseph Sy. “I need a perfect jump,” Dagmil said. “In long jump, you actually don’t have the edge even if you’re the world champion or world record holder for that matter. It’s anybody’s jump all the time.” Dagmil trains in the evenings to simulate the actual schedule of his event. The qualifying event for Torres’s event will start 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Athletics is one of only three sports that has produced a medal for the Philippines in the Olympics, the other two being swimming and boxing.
In the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, high-jump specialist Simeon Toribio captured a bronze, which hurdler Miguel White duplicated four years later in the Berlin Games.
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