PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – The long wait is finally over for Janry Ubas after he plucked his first gold medal in the men’s long jump event of the Southeast Asian Games late Tuesday.
The gold medal has been elusive to the 29-year-old Ubas since making his SEA Games debut in Singapore in 2015.
He finished with a bronze medal in Kuala Lumpur in 2017 and silver medals in Manila and Hanoi in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
Now, he finally put an end to an eight-year quest by clinching the long jump title of the Cambodia Games over two former champions – Tien Trong Nguyen of Vietnam and Sapwaturrahman of Indonesia.
“I made sure that my first jump was already high,” said Ubas, who registered a superior 7.8500-meter leap over Tien Trong’s 7.6600 meters and Sapwaturrahman’s 7.6200 meters.
“It was crucial for an event in decathlon and I made sure that my jump will be gold medal-worthy.”
Aside from a gold medal, Ubas also took home a silver medal when he finished with 6923 points behind Sutthisak Singkhon of Thailand (7468 points) in the men’s decathlon event.
His compatriot, Aries Toledo, scored 6891 points to settle for the bronze medal.
Ubas said the color of his second medal hardly mattered as his main target was to step on the podium of decathlon.
“Me and Aries had a chance to get silver or bronze so it was up to who has a higher score in the end,” Ubas said, flashing a smile that signifies the sweetness of his campaign.
