Athletics romp powers Manila bets in Batang Pinoy NCR leg

MANILA, Philippines — Manila swept past Quezon City with a deluge of gold medals in athletics to rule the National Capital Region eliminations of the 2011 Batang Pinoy Games Friday at the University of Makati.

Led by triple-gold winner Garry Santiago, Manila won 29 of the 36 track and field events to boost the city’s output to 50 golds, 57 silvers and 32 bronze medals on the final day of competitions.

Santiago, 15, ruled the boys’ discus throw (35.29 meters), javelin (35.29m) and shot put (13.99m) while his younger sister Stephanie snatched victory in the girls’ discus (25.32) and shot put (8.59).

Sprinter John Robertson Madayag and long-distance specialist Jacob Nabong also contributed two gold medals each.

Robertson ruled the boys’ 400-meter hurdles (1:01.0) and 400m run (59.14 seconds) while Nabong topped the 1500m (4:10.12) and 3000m (9:57.0) in the four-day event where the gold and silver medalists advance to the national finals in Naga City on Dec. 10 to 13.

Quezon City flexed its muscles in swimming where it snared 30 of the 44 gold medals at stake but came up short in other disciplines except wrestling to finish second overall with a 44-32-16 tally.

Host Makati wound up third overall among the 16 local government units with a 10-14-28 gold-silver-bronze harvest in the meet designed to discover talents for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

Also prevailing in Manila’s athletics romp were Vincent Nabing in the boys’ 800m run (2.07.9), Kate Jerica Ablong in girls’ 200m dash (27.00), Janssen Ganveda in boys’ 200m dash (23.9), Roone Michelle Timkang in girls’ 800m run (2:31.1) and 400m (1:04.05), Alexa Lising in girls’ high jump (1.40m), Mark Villaster in boys’ high jump (1.60m), Bianca Alefante in triple jump (9.86m), and Steve Miguel in triple jump (11.76m).

The QC wrestlers seized nine of the 15 gold medals.