Five Palaro marks fall; Ilustre goes 7-for-7
LEGAZPI CITY—Five more records fell even as Maurice Sacho Ilustre of National Capital Region again pulled off a perfect seven-of-seven feat in the pool in the 2016 Palarong Pambansa here Friday.
Middle distance wonder Mea Gey Ninura led the record-breakers by topping the secondary girls’ 1,500-meter run on a day that saw the Games cauldron at the base of the track oval crack up due to overheating, causing injuries to three people taking pictures nearby.
The victims were treated for minor injuries.
Ninura, who also set meet and national junior marks in ruling the 3,000m on Monday, timed 4 minutes and 39.46 seconds, shattering the 4:44.4 standard posted by Jie Ann Calis of Northern Mindanao two years ago.
Ilustre ruled the secondary boys (SB) 200-meter freestyle, then led the NCR team to victory in the 4x100m freestyle to cap his seven-for-seven gold performance. He also captured the gold in the 100m butterfly, 100m freestyle, 400m free, and 200m fly before powering NCR in the 4x50m freestyle relay.
The other record-breakers were Cherry Mae Banatad of Cagayan Valley in the SG high jump, Angel Ann Pranisa of Negros Island Region in the elementary girls (EG) 200m dash, NCR’s Francis Edward Obiena in SB pole vault and the Eastern Visayas SG team of Lenlyn Sanita, Lealyn Sanita, Justine Mae Catindoy and Gemmalyn Pino in the 4×400 relay.
The quartet turned in a time of 3:56.43 that erased the 4:01.60 set by Southern Tagalog in 2002.
Obiena, a son of former national vaulter Emerson and brother of Olympic aspirant Ernest, cleared 4.06m in SB pole vault to better the 4:05m of Francisco Valdecanas, also of NCR, during the 2010 edition in Tarlac.
Calis settled for the silver in the 1,500 with a 4:42.81 clocking. The 16-year-old Ninura, who hails from Digos City and a Grade 10 student at Kapatagan National High School, also edged Calis in the 3,000m run.
“All my hardwork really paid off,” said Ninura in Filipino. “She (Calis) kept me on my toes and made me push harder.”
Ninura’s 10:03.4 in the 3,000 last Monday erased the 36-year-old record of Rosalinda Catulong (10:09.05) during the National Open held in Marikina.
Banatad, a 15-year-old from Burgos, Isabela, cleared 1.66 meters to break the 1.62m set by Maureen Emily Schrijvers of NCR in 2012.
Pranisa ruled the EG 200m dash in 26.15 seconds, 0.08 seconds better than the 2008 record of NCR’s Schrijvers.
As expected NCR pulled away with 66 gold medals aside from a 36-28 silver-bronze count. Calabarzon was second (30-25-36), Western Visayas third (27-26-25), Northern Mindanao fourth (20-18-31) and Negros Island Region (NIR) fifth (17-18-27).
