13-year-old discus thrower sets new best in Palaro

SAN JOSE, ANTIQUE—Kate Julienne Martinez of Western Visayas erased a decade-old record in elementary girls discus throw on Wednesday in the 60th Palarong Pambansa here.

The 13-year-old from Bago City threw the plate to a distance of 35.56 meters to wipe out the 33.07-meter mark of Bacolod City’s Maika De Oro during the 2007 edition of the Games in Tacloban City.

Irish De Guzman of Cagayan got the silver with a 30.22m heave and Jeweliza Sarabosing of Northern Mindanao wound up third (29.65m).

“I prepared hard for this but I don’t have any plans of breaking the record,’’ said Martinez in Filipino, a daughter of a security guard and incoming seventh grader. “Luckily, I did.’’

Records also fell on Day 2 of the preliminary heats in swimming with Metro Manila tankers Nicole Pamintuan smashing another record in the girls’ 13-17 100m free and Mark Jiron Rotoni resetting the mark in the boys’ 13-17 200m breast stroke.

Pamintuan, who broke the secondary girls 100m back on Tuesday, tore apart the 2010 record of Loren Dale Chavez (1:00.28) with a 59.83-second performance while Rotoni topped the heat in 2:28.85, blotting out the 19-year record of Rafael Chua (2:30.42).

Ethan Roy Go of Calabarzon also beat Chua’s record after placing second in 2:29.65.

Maria Ferimi Gleam Bajado of Dumaguete City captured the first gold in archery in the secondary girls 30m recurve but got foiled by Charmaine Angela Villamor of Caraga region in her bid for a double gold performance.

Villamor fired 318 points in the 36-arrow event to beat Bajado’s 315 points. Kate Louise Balageo of Caraga took the bronze medal with 311 points.

Bryan Amir Stevenson of Central Luzon narrowly survived Kennyben Gallogo of Caraga and Lloyd Apawan of Central Visayas in a shoot-off for the gold in the 30m secondary boys’ recurve. Jared Cole Sua of Ilocos later ruled the 50m event at the expense of Gallogo.

In taekwondo, Michael Porras Jr. of Northern Mindanao joined the cast of triple gold medalists with victories in the individual boys and team poomsae as well as in the mixed pair with Akila Gabrielle Boloto. Porras teamed up with Lorenzo Daguinotas and Shun Kine Ira in the group event.

Cue artists Romel John Antaran of Zamboanga topped the boys’ 8-ball while Carmille Buhat of Negros region seized the gold on the distaff side shortly after Eastern Visayas collected three golds in freestyle wrestling courtesy of Anthony Obias (42kg), Diomel Hugo (46kg) and Anthony Pangan (54kg).

Other top performers in secondary boys athletics were Marjun Sulleza of Socsargen (400m hurdles), Ed Delina of Central Luzon (discus throw), Algin Gomez of Cagayan (triple jump) and Zamboanga’s Germar Marcelo (5000m).