Fil-Am Banard smashes 800m record in Portland track meet

MANILA, Philippines – United States-based Fil-Am Jess Barnard celebrated her 26th birthday by breaking the 31-year-old national women's 800-meter record in the just concluded Portland Track Festivalat the Lewis & Clark College oval.

According to www.sheltoninvite.com and pinoyathletics.info, Barnard, who turned a leaf Friday, timed in two minutes and 6.75 seconds to erase the 2:07.01 mark set by Nenita Dungca in the 1985 Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand.

Barnard, who won the gold in the same event in 2:11.20 in the Phl National Open at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City last April, also improved on her personal best of 2:09.32 she set in another race also in Portland.

Andrew Perie, a former athletics consultant by the Phl Sports Commission, said the move by Barnard, whose mother was from Digos, Davao del Sur, from California to Portland was a big a factor.

"She decided to move out to Oregon for a better training environment and more relaxed lifestyle than fast-paced California," said Perie.

The 800m was actually Barnard's secondary event but plans by Malaysian organizers to scrap the steeplechase, her pet event, from the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEAG calendar, may force the 2013 and 2015 SEAG steeplechase bronze medalist to focus more on the shorter race.

Barnard's current best time could be good for the silver as it eclipsed the 2:10.21 time Myanmar's Myint Swe Li clocked to cop the silver in last year's edition of the biennial meet in Singapore.

Vietnamese Do Thi Thao struck gold in 2:05.22.