INQUIRER Sports

TUBOD, LANAO DEL NORTE—Gen. Santos City’s impressive finish in swimming and taekwondo negated Zamboanga’s final push in the pool and in two contact sports to capture the overall title of the 3rd Philippine Olympic Festival Mindanao qualifying games.

Omar Philip Dacera ruled five events, three of them with “triple A” clockings, to highlight GenSan’s 19-gold pool romp, while its taekwondo squad contributed seven victories that helped defuse Zamboanga’s closing charge of 32 wins at the Mindanao Civic Center.

GenSan, which also scored heavily in gymnastics, finished with a medal collection of 103 golds, 54 silvers and 35 bronzes.

Zamboanga, the defending overall champion, was 20 golds behind in second place with 83 on top of 49 silvers and 28 bronzes.

Cagayan de Oro was third overall with an output of 67-43-41.

A cousin of national team member Nikita Dacera, the 12-year-old Omar ruled the 1,500-meter freestyle, 50m free, 200m free, 100m butterfly and 400m free with remarkable clockings, making the incoming Grade 6 student at Notre Dame-GenSan a top prospect for the national pool.

Tournament director Richard Luna said Dacera’s times in the 1,500, 400 and 200 free can compete with those of the best swimmers his age around the globe.

Dacera, the third of four children by a dentist couple, clocked 18 minutes and 43.96 seconds in the 1,500m free to surpass the international triple A (ITA) time of 19:41.20.

He clocked 4:42.20 in the 400 free against the ITA time of 4:57.90 and did 2:16.04 in the 200 (ITA 2:22.70).

Regina Astrid Quesada and Maria Kiesha Mercado, who captured four golds each for GenSan Saturday, combined for five golds this time.

The 14-year-old Quesada had three more wins in the 200m back, 400m free and 200m medley relay while Mercado, 13, won the 200m free before leading GenSan to victory in the 400m relay.

The other GenSan winners were Roy Lapiz (boys’ 15-over 200m back, 200m free, 400m free), Christine Joy Cruz (girls’ 11-12 100m breast and 200m breast), Coralyn Lim (girls 11-12 200m free, 400m free), Garay (100m breast) and Cruz (100m fly).

The GenSan taekwondo champions were Milagros Espina (women’s -55kg), Cromwell Ian Apsay (men’s over 84kg), Mary Ann Espina (-42kg), Flordeliz Villegas (-49kg), Mayshayne Mar-anga (-52kg), Cyrmyn Perlas (junior girls -55kg) and Jay Angelo To-Ong (-63kg).

Zamboanga picked up 15 golds in swimming, 10 in arnis and seven in muay thai for the day while Cagayan de Oro grabbed eight golds in swimming, five in taekwondo, four in karatedo, three in table tennis and two in chess.

Mark Andico (pinweight junior 1), Ruel Aristoteles (pinweight junior 2), Peter Bayares (pinweight), Marvin Miao (lightfly), Mark Bosque (fly), Zarrex Deocampo (junior fly) and Kim Gregorio (welter) shone for Zamboanga in muay thai.

Robert Valdez, president of Muay Philippines, later tapped light welter Jonathan Polosan for the RP team going to Thailand for a month-long training after the solid 5-foot-10 fighter from Misamis Oriental subdued Mark Gregorio of Zamboanga in the finals.

Zamboanga scored in arnis through Bonifacio Bantoto (men’s bantam), Alvin Lim (feather), Gerald Marmuada (extra light-weight), Erick Candido (light), Mike Luis (half middle), Eugenio Gabatan (half heavy), Bregner Abidin (boys’ bantam), Ronnel Dela Chica (boys’ extra light), Rose Horario (girls’ pinweight) and Rovel Ruth Rizalde (women’s lightweight).