Fil-Am runner Victoria Bossong cleared to run for flag and country

IN 2024, Fil-Am runner Victoria Bossong dreamt of representing the country and showed her genuine intention by participating in the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships at the PhilSports track oval that same year.

Two years later, the 23-year-old Harvard standout could finally realize her aspiration after obtaining a Philippine passport and clearing World Athletics’ official transfer window last July 1.

“Yes,” Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association Secretary-General Jasper Tanhueco on Wednesday told The STAR when asked if Ms. Bossong can now run for the flag and country.

Mr. Tanhueco, however, did not elaborate on the matter but sources said Ms. Bossong has not yet officially earned a spot to the national squad.

But she could carve her way to a spot there though.

Terrifyingly, Ms. Bossong, whose mother Annie Yaco Atienza hails from Puerto Galera, has shown she is a force after clocking a scintillating one minute and 58.52 seconds in the women’s 800 meters at the Lone Star Grand Prix in Texas just last month.

That breathtaking sub-two-minute time just destroyed the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games (Asiad) gold medal standard of 2:03.20 set by Sri Lankan Tharushi Karunarathna as well as the once seemingly unbreakable Asiad mark of 1:59.02.

Also, Ms. Bossong’s time was far better than the national standard of 2:06.24 set by another Fil-Am youngster Naomi Cesar in Portland last month.

She would have a shot at eclipsing all if she ends making the team wading into the Asiad waters in Japan this September. — Joey Villar