In final year of eligibility, 5-year dance partnership strikes gold

TAGUM CITY—For Kathleen Mae Catapan and Jan Ryl Gabanilla, failure has become their passport to success.

The dancesport pair from Panabo City ended four years of Batang Pinoy frustration by claiming two gold medals in the Mindanao leg of the 2019 Games on Tuesday at RDR Gym here.

“This is the first time that we won a gold medal on our last year here in the Batang Pinoy,” said the 14-year-old Catapan in Filipino. Her partnership with Gabanilla wowed the judges in the Juvenile A Standard and Juvenile C Standard 3 events.

“It’s been five years since we began performing and we have learned a lot from our mistakes,” added Catapan.

The 15-year-old Gabanilla and Catapan are Grade 9 classmates at Francisco Adlaon Learning Institute in nearby Panabo.

Catapan and Gabanilla defeated the duo of Jose Saavedra and Jessa Dela Torre from Samal Island in the Juvenile C Standard and clinched their second gold at the expense of Frederick Monterde and Alyssa Karel Piquero of Davao City in the Juvenile A Standard.

Over at Gaisano Mall, taekwondo poomsae artist Paul Anthony Rodriguez of General Santos City became the first triple-gold performer in these Games designed to discover the best athletes in the country age 15 years old and younger.

The 13-year-old from Holy Trinity College in General Santos scored 7.815 points in the individual junior male category and produced another golden finish with Aleya Rayzel Labao in the pair junior discipline with 8.020 points.

Rodriguez’s third gold came in the team junior event after assembling 7.685 points with Benedict Opao and Ezekiel Limpin in the weeklong meet organized by the Philippine Sports Commission and the province of Davao Del Norte.

“This is the result of hard work. I trained for three hours everyday, six times a week,” said Rodriguez, a silver medalist in the Palarong Pambansa last year. “My dream is to represent our country in the Olympics and other international tournaments.”