Cesar makes 800 mark at Youth Olympics
DAKAR—Naomi Marjorie Cesar continues to grow and develop into a potential track star for the Philippines.
At the Youth Olympic Games here, Cesar continued to carve her own niche, finishing third in her heat and looking every inch a medalist for a country that has yet to make the podium in this year’s edition of the Games.
Cesar clocked two minutes and 20.16 seconds in her heat on Sunday at the Complexe Iba Mar Diop Stadium, with event favorite Netsanet Selemon of Ethiopia topping the other heat in 2:08.28.
Both athletes’ times are off their personal best—Selemon at 2:04:40 and Cesar at 2:06:24, a Philippine record she set in the Portland Track Festival at the Grisworld Stadium in Portland only last June.
No one else in the final comes close to both their times.
Cesar was competing in the final at press time.
Regardless of her finish, Cesar has shown she can more than keep pace with the best of her continental rivals.
“I felt good about my run; it was really smooth,” said Cesar, the youngest to win the 800 meters gold at the Bangkok Southeast Asian Games last December and also has a silver at the Asian Youth Games also last year in Bahrain.
Cesar also received an unlikely morale boost from legendary Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge, an International Olympic Committee Global Ambassdor, who gave the Filipino runner some tips before her race.
