PHNOM PENH – The Philippines stayed on course for its four-gold target in the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games obstacle race competitions as its aces advanced to the men’s and women’s team relay finals Thursday at the Chroy Changvar Convention Center Car Park.

A day after setting up all-Filipino championships in the individual men’s and women’s categories, the quartet of Jayr De Castro, Mervin Guarte, Elias Tabac and Ahgie Radan and female counterparts Mhick Tejares, Sandi Abahan, Tess Nocyao and Mecca Cortizano took care of business to earn their spots in Sunday’s finale.

The men’s team qualified as No. 2 in the heats with a time of 25.866 seconds. The Pinoy OCR athletes will dispute the mint with Malaysia’s Ghalib Mohamad Azimi, Mohd Redha Rozlan, Nuur Hafis Said Alwi, and Yoong Wei Theng, who submitted the fastest qualifying clocking of 25.6236.

The ladies clocked 40.1780 in the preliminaries and arranged a title duel with Indonesia’s Anggun Yolanda, Ayu Pupita, Mudji Mulyani, and Rahmayuna Fadillah, who had the best time of 35.0435.

“Kung run ang pag-ususapan, definitely maganda naman ang performance today,” said coach Kristian Guerrero.

“Kailangan lang ng few adjustments. Critical iyun dito, especially sa relay kasi may sections lang sila na ginagawa. Three obstacles lang per section and kailangan talaga mag-focus ang athlete. May konting adjustments na kapag gumanda, bibilis ang oras.”

The Obstacle Sports Team’s finals qualification came on the heels of the record-breaking runs of Mark Rodelas and Precious Cabuya in individual play, where they are pitted in a Philippines-vs-Philippines golden showdown against 2019 champ Kevin Pascua and Kaizen dela Serna, respectively.

If successful, the delegation will complete another sweep of the SEA Game action. Back in 2019, they scooped all six golds at home.

“That’s the plan,” Guerrero said as they try to bring out the broom again and contribute to the overall campaign of the Philippine Sports Commission-backed Team Philippines here.