Swimming sensations Kirsten Chloe Daos and Raissa Regatta Gavino picked up two more golds each and emerged the most bemedalled athletes with six apiece while powering Quezon City behind Manila in the battle for the overall title in the NCR leg of the POC-PSC Batang Pinoy 2012 yesterday.
Daos and Regatta, who have become the darling of the crowd the past four days, electrified the Marikina Sports Complex swimming pool by sweeping all their events as QC finished with 23 golds, 23 silvers and 13 bronzes for an overall gold-silver-bronze total of 29-39-31.
Manila kept the overall lead with a gold-silver-bronze output of 35-35-30, a huge chunk of which came from track and field as the San Sebastian boys dominated with a 13-12-7 medal tally.
After a 19-21-22 harvest in swimming, Manila boosted its medal collection with a 3-1-0 performance in taekwondo.
Marikina refused to be upstaged on its own turf by winning four golds in arnis and coming up with 10-5-7 performance in athletics.
“I didn’t expect to win all six golds because the competitions were tough and there were swimmers I didn’t expect to beat, but I did my best in preparing for the meet,” said the 13-year-old Daos, an 8th grader at Immaculate Conception Academy.
She capped her impressive showing yesterday with golds in the girls’ 15-under 100-meter butterfly and 800m freestyle. She also ruled her division’s 200m fly, 400m free, 200m free. She and Gavino also powered QC in the 4X50 medley relay.
It was the first Batang Pinoy stint for Daos, who also shone in the recent Southeast Asian age-group where she bagged silvers in the 400m free, 800 free and 200m individual medley.
The 12-year-old Gavino triumphed in the girls’ 13-under 100m breaststroke and 800m free to go with victories in the 200m breast, 50m breast and 400m free.