INQUIRER Sports

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY?National Capital Region tankers showed their might with six golden feats, two of them in record clockings, and a Calabarzon backstroker highlighted first-day pool action by smashing a decade-old mark at the 2008 Palarong Pambansa here.

Bacolod City?s Maika de Oro heaved the disc to a new Palaro record as athletics powerhouse Western Visayas struck again with two victories and raised its gold-medal haul to four.

Banjo Borja ruled the secondary boys? 100-meter backstroke finals for Calabarzon (Region 4A) in one minute and 2.26 seconds, surpassing the 1:02.54 mark set by Bicol?s Jonathan de Guzman in the 1998 Palaro in Bacolod.

The 15-year-old junior student from Liceo de San Pablo beat NCR?s Johansen Aguilar (1:02.59) and Mimaropa?s Jeron Mercader (1:06.69), who settled for the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

But the NCR tankers struck with aplomb on other fronts, with its secondary boys? and girls? 4x50 individual medley quartets ripping old records.

Aguilar powered the NCR boys? relay squad also made up of Kevin Lua, Gabriel Castelo and Timothy Yap to a time of 1:54.57 to blot out the old standard of 1:55.69 set by a Bicol quartet in 2005.

Calabarzon took the silver in 1:57.51 and Central Luzon the bronze in 2:02.28.

NCR?s Dorothy Hong, Hannah Dato, Edlyn Son and Carmina Quilala followed suit, clocking 2:09.30 for the gold and shattering the 2:12.24 mark set by another NCR squad in Koronadal last year.

Hong captured NCR?s second individual gold in the high school division with a victory in the 100m backstroke. She timed 1:08.58, besting teammate Quilala (1:11.40) and Calabarzon?s Jacklyn Judith Junio (1:12.88).

Yap and Fahad Alkhaldi accounted for NCR?s three other golds in the pool.

The 13-year-old De Oro flashed a winning smile and then sobbed after making her second attempt in the discus throw.

De Oro hurled the metal-cast plate to 32.62 meters in the secondary girls? discus throw, eclipsing the old record of 32.45m set by Nina Marie Lumapaz of Central Visayas in 2000.

Already the winner of the same event in the elementary division last year, De Oro could follow in the footsteps of her father, Manuel, a former member of the national training pool under the Project: Gintong Alay in the 1980s, according to athletics officials.

De Oro, uncomfortable with her monthly period and all, beat Calabarzon?s Ira Marie Hernandez (30.31m) and Central Luzon?s Geneva Calma (20.03).

?I want to be in the national pool someday,? said Maika, whose father is now the Negros Occidental provincial sports coordinator.

Ivan Jey Sucaldo gave Western Visayas its fourth gold in two days with a 14.20-m effort in the secondary boys? triple jump. Davao?s Ramjay Carado bagged the silver with 13.80m and Calabarzon?s Noriel Monis the bronze with 13.53m.

Irin Balura collared Central Visayas? first gold, ruling the secondary boys? triple jump with a leap of 11.78m.

Alkhaldi, an incoming high school freshman at the International Christian Academy, topped the 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke for elementary boys while Yap seized the gold in the 400m freestyle for secondary boys.

Alkhaldi, 13, clocked 2:17.94 in the 200m free to subdue Calabarzon?s Franz Marquez (2:18.50) and teammate Jose Gio Palencia (2:18.65).

About 15 minutes later, the 5-foot-6 Alkhaldi struck in the 100m back in 1:10.72 with Marquez again settling for the silver in 1:12.61 and teammate Jovic Ventinilla the bronze in 1:12.86.

Yap ruled the 400m free with a time of 4:28.58, besting Berino (4:32.63) and Mimaropa?s Jeron Mercader (4:32.96).

Ryan Arabejo, one of six Filipinos seeing action in the August Beijing Olympics, owns the Palaro record of 4:08.36, set in 2005 in Iloilo, in the 400m free for secondary boys.

Central Visayas grabbed its first gold in swimming after Loren Echavez topped the 400m free for secondary girls with a time of 4:48.20. Echavez nipped NCR?s Hannah Dato (4:48.76) and Western Visayas? Chantana Neptuno (4:56.60).

In arnis, Christopher De Leon picked up Cordillera?s first gold in the boys? individual single weapon anyo while NCR topped elementary gymnastics.