MANILA: Asian sprint queen Lydia De Bega-Mercado is out of the Philippines track team for the Beijing Asian Games.
The runner, who shot to fame in Delhi eight years ago and hit the headlines again when she eloped after the Seoul Olympics, has been too sick to train.
Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Jose Sering finalized a 135strong squad.
“She cannot try out. She was sick for two weeks,” he said.
Vega-Mercado, 25, won the 100 metres in the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi and did it again in Seoul four years later. But after the US-trained sprinter failed to reach the quarterfinals of 1988 Olympics in Seoul, she eloped and married a Manila engineer, Paolo Mercado. She gave birth to a girl last year.
Sering said he did not believe her track career was over, despite bouts of typhoid fever and flu which have kept her away from training for Beijing.
He said fast-rising track star Elma Muros would be the Philippines main bet in the women’s 100 metres in the Chinese capital.
The Philippines will send a 135strong delegation, including about 90 athletes, to the games, he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 17, 1990
