Henry Dagmil

AGE: 26 years old
SPORT: Men’s long jump
OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE: 1st-time OlympianSoutheast Asian Games record holderFirst Filipino long-jumper since 1936

WITH just a month left before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, long-jump specialist Henry Dagmil was hoping to improve on his leap.

But in doing so, he suffered a setback: a groin injury.

Like the grizzled warrior that he is, Dagmil brushed off the mishap and with the Olympics—the highest level of participation an athlete can reach—at hand, he was resolute in declaring his availability for Beijing.

“I’m feeling a lot better now. I’m ready for the Olympics,” Dagmil said, referring to the injury that he sustained while competing in a tournament held recently in Kuala Lumpur.
“I just felt that the injured area was overstretched. It’s really not that painful.”

This isn’t the kind of impediment that will frustrate Dagmil as he fulfills his Olympic dream. From a farm boy growing up in a sleepy town in South Cotobato province, Dagmil’s career shot up to prominence as a varsity athlete who starred for Mapua Institute in the National Collegiate Athletic Association then later on as an elite athlete and a regular fixture on various national squads.

Dagmil’s most notable feat came last year after he broke the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) record in long jump after he cleared a distance of 7.87 meters in the Thailand Games. The SEAG mark he previously broke? It belonged to Dagmil too, a distance of 7.83 he covered in the 2005 SEAG in Manila.

Now, it looks like Dagmil is ripe and ready for the biggest stage. The world.

But before he could get an Olympic berth, a series of events unfolded that called on the national federation to intervene.


To get to Beijing, Dagmil needed to surpass the Olympic qualifying mark of 8.05 meters. Unfortunately, the 7.99 meters that he tallied in the United States Track and Field Championship was not enough to convince the International Association of Athletics Federations that he deserved to get an Olympic slot.

The Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association wrote the international federation to appeal Dagmil’s case. The request was granted and Dagmil was given the go-signal to fly to Beijing.
“I don’t care [how I get to Beijing], as long as I will be there,” said Dagmil, who will join fellow long-jumper Maristella Torres as the country’s track-and-field bets.

“I am playing for my country and I am compelled to give the best that I can.”
It won’t be hard to get the best out of Dagmil, who has had extensive training abroad.
He was under the wings of a few US-based coaches including Jerry Cablayan, a half-Filipino coach who has trained other Filipinos abroad.

“I could stretch [Dagmil’s] jump to 8.15 meters, which is good enough for an Olympic medal,” Cablayan said. “He is very much willing to learn. In fact, he has already perfected his strokes and jumping style.”

Ranged against the best in the world, it appears Dagmil only has an outside chance. So he’s keeping his goals realistic: he just wants to prove he can beat 8.05m, the mark he could’ve achieved in Kuala Lumpur that would’ve given him an easier passage to Beijing.


“Even if I don’t win in the Olympics,” Dagmil said, “as long as I surpass it, that would already be an achievement.”