Palarong Pambansa: NCR runs away with title

MEMBERS of the Western Visayas volleyball team celebrate after winning the championship against Davao. ROMY HOMILLADA

STA. CRUZ, Laguna—Powered by its record-setting swimmers and runners, National Capital Region overwhelmed the opposition to rule the Palarong Pambansa 2014 that ended in torrential rains here Saturday.

Getting almost half of its golden haul in the pool, NCR finished with a total 107 gold,  64 silver  and 56 bronze medals  mainly through the exploits of swimmers Maurice Sacho Ilustre and Imee Joyce Saavedra and speedster Jomar Udtohan.

Udtohan, went five-for-five, all in record times, in track and field and the two swimmers made breakthrough performances throughout the week that produced 18 new meet marks.

Calabarzon, however, managed to grab a piece of the limelight after beating NCR in high school boys’ basketball held at Pila Municipal Hall.

The San Beda-Taytay squad scored a stunning 86-80 win over NCR, whose core was made up of National University players.

Since the once powerful Southern Tagalog region was split into Calabarzon and Mimaropa in 2002, Metro Manila has been lording it over the annual meet for elementary and high school students.

Calabarzon ended up a far second with a gold-silver-bronze output of 38-51-51 followed by Western Visayas (32-33-38), Central Visayas (24-27-37) and  Cordillera Administrative Region (24-11-12) which dominated arnis and taekwondo.

Rounding out the top 10 among the 17 regions were Northern Mindanao (21-21-31), next year’s host Socsksargen (15-17-30), Davao (10-20-21), Bicol (9-6-22) and Central Luzon (8-11-22).

In badminton, NCR nailed three gold medals in Victoria town, including the elementary boys’ doubles gold of Patrick Gecosada and Alvin Morada. But Central Visayas snared four titles led by high school boys’ singles champ Carl Bernard Bejasa.

In tennis, Arthur Craig Pantino of Central Visayas bagged the elementary boys’ single  while Bliss Bayking topped Western Visayas topped the girls’ side. Calabarzon’s Noel Damian ruled the high school boys’ singles, while NCR’s Erika Manduriao held sway in the girls’ division.

Western Visayas dominated softball, capturing the golds in both boys’ and girls’ categories. It also downed Davao Region (25-18, 25-12, 25-23) for the high school girls’ volleyball title.

Ilocos Norte produced a star in archer Mary Queen Ybañez who shot down six golds from the range.

Also grabbing the limelight were Tacloban-based runners, nicknamed “Team Yolanda,” who bagged three gold medals, two from Leah Joan Creer (200m and 400m) and the 4×400 team of Creer, Karen Janario, faiza Jean Lenton and Gemmalyn Pino.