Lacuna nails 9 golds; Fil-Am rips hurdles mark
OLYMPIC swimmer Jessie Khing Lacuna and Asian Games boxing champion Rey Saludar shone as expected even as Fil-American Eric Cray broke the 110-meter hurdles record yesterday in the Philippine Olympic Committee-Philippine Sports Commission National Games.
The 20-year-old Lacuna was hardly challenged in the three-day swimming competitions at the Rizal Memorial Aquatics Center, nailing four more triumphs to complete his personal goal of nine gold medals.
His latest triumphs came in the 100-meter butterfly (58.62 seconds), 200m individual medley (2:13.39), 50m freestyle (24.64 seconds) and 100m breaststroke (1:11.55). He earlier topped the 400m free, 100m free, 200m butterfly, 200m free and 400m IM.
Saludar outpointed fellow National bet Gerson Nietes, 21-17, in a bruising 52kg elite boys’ gold medal bout at Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Over at the Philsports track and field stadium, Cray, based in San Antonio, Texas who recently obtained his PH passport in a bid to join the national team, clocked 14.17 seconds in topping the 110m hurdles, beating national team mainstay Patrick Unso, who set the old record of 14.58 in the 2011 Southeast Asian Games.
Jesse Mae Fernandez of University of Santo Tomas also grabbed the limelight with a record heave of 35.36 meters in junior hammer throw.
“I’m very pleased with my accomplishments but I was hoping to improve my times,” said Lacuna.
At Ninoy Aquino Stadium, Philippine Air Force swept the men’s and women’s volleyball gold medals. PAF downed National U, 25-22, 25-20, 19-25, 25-22 for the men’s title and Cagayan Valley for the women’s championship, 21-25, 25-19, 26-14, 25-18.
