Marestella "Mariz" Renido Torres-Sunang OLY (born February 20, 1981) is a Filipino

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

er.

Career

Torres-Sunang started long jumping in 1994 in

Negros Oriental Negros Oriental (; ), officially the Province of Negros Oriental (; ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Negros Island. Its capital is the city of Dumaguete, one of the two regional centers of Negros Island Region, with the other b ...

. Her talent was recognized by her teachers but she often trained on a limited budget, doing jumps on rice husks rather than a proper sand pit. Torres-Sunang finished fourth at the 2002 Asian Championships and won the

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

at the 2005 Asian Championships. She also competed at the 2005 World Championships without reaching the final. She also participated in the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

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China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. In 2009, she surprisingly won the 2009 Asian Championships with a leap of 6.51 m. Her personal best jump of 6.71 m, achieved at the

2011 Southeast Asian Games The 2011 Southeast Asian Games, () officially known as the 26th Southeast Asian Games, or the 26th SEA Games, and commonly known as Jakarta-Palembang 2011, were a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held from 11 to 22 November 2011 in Jakarta and ...

Palembang Palembang (, Palembang: ''Pelémbang'', Mandarin: 巨港 (Jùgǎng), Hokkien: 舊港 (Kū-káng), Jawi: ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River in the ea ...

, is currently the

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...

Record. Torres-Sunang finished 22nd of 32 at the

2012 London Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, failing to advance to the final. On April 7, 2016, Torres-Sunang, who came from maternity with the help of her coach and sponsor

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and nutritionist-wife Carol Lafferty, won the gold medal in the women's long jump event of the 2016 Ayala-PATAFA Philippine National Open Invitationals held at the Philsports Arena. She registered a 6.60 m jump in her 5th attempt, falling 10 centimeters short from the Olympic qualifying standard. In May 2016, the

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(IAAF) formally accepted the nomination made by the

Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) is the Sports governing body, National Sports Association (NSA) for Athletics (sport), athletics sports such as track and field, road running, cross country running, and racewalking ...

(PATAFA) for the

universality slot Universality slots or universality places are used by the International Olympic Committee to increase diversity of participating nations across the sports programme of the Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world' ...

of Torres-Sunang in the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. However, the slot was junked after the inclusion of marathon runner Mary Joy Tabal in the Rio-bound Philippine delegation. In July 2016, Torres-Sunang achieved the Olympic qualifying standard in the Women's Long Jump in the Kazakhstan Open and setting a new national record of 6.72 meters, thus making it into the Rio Olympics. This would be the third straight and the final Olympic appearance for the Filipina long jumper, who is the most senior member of the national contingent.

Personal life

She is married to a fellow Filipino athlete, shot putter Eliezer Sunang with who she has a son.

Personal bests

(Outdoor) *Long Jump : 6.72 m (+0.8 m/s) – Kazakhstan Open,

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Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, 4 July 2016 *Triple Jump : 12.67 m –

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

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, 3 June 2004 *100 Meters: 12.44 – 2007 World Championships,

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. 26 August 2007 (Indoor) *Long Jump : 6.06 m –

Aspire Dome The Aspire Dome is an indoor multi-purpose arena based in Qatar. It is located in the Aspire Academy in Al Rayyan and has the capacity to host 13 different sporting events simultaneously in a climate controlled arena, in addition to a full-siz ...

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

, 13 March 2010

International competitions

References

External links