3 Palaro records fall; overall race tightens up

DAPITAN CITY—West Visayan athletes set two of three records Friday as their delegation battled Calabarzon and the National Capital Region for top honors with just a day of action left in the Palarong Pambansa here.

Joneza Mie Sustituedo of Lambunao, Iloilo, set her second mark by winning the girls’ elementary 1,500-meter run while teammate Maika de Oro broke the girls’ secondary discus throw record of 36.01 meters with a heave of 40.25.

The 12-year-old Sustituedo, who set a new mark of 2 minutes 21.48 seconds in the 800m run Thursday, timed 4:53.0 in the 1,500m, where she holds the old mark of 4:57.69 which she set last year.

NCR’s Axel Ngui highlighted the action in the pool by topping the boys’ secondary 200m freestyle in 1:59.05, ripping the 1:59.92 record set by Ryan Arabejo in 2005.

Fahad Al-Khaldi also broke the record by claiming the silver in 1:59.20.

As expected, elementary tankers Mark Joseph Rominquit of NCR and Catherine Bondad of Calabarzon swam to their seventh gold medal yesterday, even as Jenny Rose Rosales of Calabarzon completed a three-event sweep of the girls’ secondary sprints by ruling the 200 meters in 25.35 seconds.

Rosales also ruled the 100 meters before topping the 400m in record time. Rominquit was a perfect seven-for-seven after prevailing in the boys’ 50m free (26.71 seconds), while Bondad topped the girls’ side in 29.76 seconds.

Both are poised to claim the Most Outstanding Athlete award. Neither of them, though, managed to break a record.

Nine records have been set so far, counting the girls’ elementary 100m butterfly time of 1:09.38 by Calabarzon’s Francis May Pillado.

In the overall race, NCR, Western Visayas and Calabarzon continued their three-way battle for top honors, which the Metro Manila delegation has dominated in both divisions since 2006.

Calabarzon led the boys’ and girls’ elementary swimming with 191 points with just the relays left. It also showed the way in the high school competition with 250 points with NCR second (207) and Western Visayas third (76).

But Western Visayas had an overwhelming lead in both divisions of track and field after grabbing the overall titles in boys’ and girls’ table tennis and arnis.

Metro Manila was hoping to keep the overall crown through victories in the ball games, where it had already secured the boys’ secondary baseball title over Calabarzon, 6-0. However, its boys’ secondary basketball team was eliminated by Davao, 98-79, in the semifinals.

Over at the Gallera de Dapitan, three fighters from Soccsksargen beat their respective foes for the gold medals.

Christian Pitt Laurente stopped Arjay Lansangan of Region 3 in elementary 30 kg, Junrel Jimenez whipped Dhannel Maamo of Region 10 in secondary paperweight, while pinweight Martin Faderagao bested Raymond Salmingo.