Lavandia snares two gold in China
FOR INTERNATIONAL campaigner Erlinda Lavandia, age is just a number.
Lavandia proved this over the week after bagging two gold medals for the country in the 20th Asia Masters Athletics Championships held at the Jiangsu Rugao Olympic Sports Center in Rugao, China.
The former police officer bagged the gold in the women’s javelin throw and shotput for 65 years while taking home on the side silver in the discus throw and hammer throw.
“We were 15 sent by the Philippines in the competition. Luckily, yung seven months training natin nag paid off,” said Lavandia.
Lavandia’s two gold and two silver medal output propelled the country to a 12th place finish over all after a 55-6medal haul with host China bagged the overall title with 209 gold, 184 silver and 129 bronze while India finished second with 37 gold, 43 silver and 66 bronze.
Japan placed third (34-28-16) followed by Sri Lanka (32-36-47), Taiwan (31-23-24), Thailand (24-13-4), Iran (18-12-13), Hong Kong (11-19-24), Kazakhstan (9-8-5) and Indonesia (8-1-3).
Just earlier this year,
Lavandia hurled the spear at 30.58 meters to regain the gold medal in the javelin throw during the 2017 World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships in Daegu, South Korea.
Lavandia made sure she would reclaim the gold after her silver medal finish last year in the same event held in Perth, Australia with a 30. 28 meters heave.
With the top podium finish, Lavandia now has seven golds and two silver medals in the WMA. In 2013, she took her sixth WMA gold medal with a record 39.83 meters in Brazil. Roderick Osis