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After ruling the UAAP athletics meet, UST’s Hokett delos Santos thinks he’s primed for his decathlon debut within the Southeast Asian Video games
MANILA, Philippines – Identified for his pole vault prowess, UST’s Hokett delos Santos ended his brief however eventful UAAP profession by bagging the Season 88 athletics MVP award, alongside Ateneo’s Russel Ricaforte.
Whereas Delos Santos’ MVP run put the cherry on prime of his collegiate profession, it additionally proved he’s in peak all-around type forward of his decathlon marketing campaign on the thirty third Southeast Asian Video games in Thailand subsequent month.
“It’s actually an honor to be the UAAP Season 88 MVP, since I’m graduating and it’s my remaining season,” Delos Santos, a former pole vault silver medalist within the 2021 SEA Video games in Hanoi, advised Rappler.
“However the SEA Video games is a distinct stage in comparison with UAAP. There, I can be competing towards the most effective of the most effective of the Southeast Asia.”
“I’ll go there with one purpose, that’s to win.”
His UAAP stint got here simply two months after topping the Atletang Ayala Pole Vault nationwide meet, which earned him a possibility to compete towards world-ranked pole vaulters within the occasion’s fundamental competitors.
Whereas he didn’t document a clearance in September’s worldwide occasion in Makati, Delos Santos was deemed a rising star within the sport, one which has lengthy been dominated by Olympian EJ Obiena.
Solely two athletes per nation can compete in every athletics occasion on this 12 months’s SEA Video games, with Obiena and US-based Elijah Cole anticipated to banner the Philippines’ pole vault marketing campaign.
That left Delos Santos with no alternative however to shift gears and tackle the lads’s decathlon as a substitute.
“I used to be not a decathlete earlier than, however it will definitely turned my fundamental occasion,” he stated. “Me and coach Emerson (Obiena) wanted to change for the meantime to the decathlon and focus our coaching on that since early this 12 months since we noticed that the occasion can be very aggressive.”
“I imagine with the appropriate mindset, nothing is unattainable.”
The lads’s decathlon occasion will function 10 disciplines in two days — the 100-meter sprint, lengthy soar, shot put, excessive soar, 400-meter run, 110-meter hurdles, discus throw, javelin throw, 1,500-meter dash, and pole vault, his pet occasion.
Within the UAAP, Delos Santos, representing the UST Tiger Tracksters, gained gold medals in pole vault and the 110-meter hurdles, whereas incomes silver within the 4×100 relay and bronze within the 4×400 relay, which earned him the MVP award.
Coached by Emerson Obiena, EJ Obiena’s father, the 23-year-old Delos Santos believes his robust UAAP stint gave him a superb barometer forward of the regional meet.
“Now we simply have to concentrate on the occasions that want larger enhancements,” he stated because the SEA Video games come close to. “The preparation for the SEA Video games was not as easy as we hoped, however we imagine we will carry out effectively.”
In accordance with Obiena, Delos Santos’ development in most occasions has been commendable.
“He’s actually motivated,” stated the older Obiena, who trains Delos Santos in three occasions every single day inside UST and Philippine Sports activities Fee complexes in Manila and Pasig Metropolis.
“In simply two days, he can be competing in 10 occasions, so our coaching has actually been unfold out. Hopefully, it’s the key for him to win a gold medal within the SEA Video games,” the coach added.
Within the final SEA Video games in 2023, the Philippines gained 22 medals in athletics.
For Delos Santos, his motivation for coming into the regional meet has at all times been clear: to contribute a medal to the nation’s trigger.
“My motivation is to win a medal, not silver, not bronze, however gold,” he stated. “We have no idea what is going to occur within the SEA Video games, however, for certain, different nations are making ready for us too.” – Rappler.com
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