Batang Pinoy: Laguna lasses rule track events

CALAPAN, Oriental Mindoro—Tracksters Rocena Chua and Merrielyn Judilla joined forces and grabbed their third gold medal in the Southern Luzon qualifying leg of the Philippine Olympic Committee-Philippine Sports Commission Batang Pinoy Games.

Chua, who ruled the girls’ 14-15 100-meter hurdles and high jump, and sprinter Judilla keyed Laguna’s victory in the 4x100m relay that capped the province’s haul of 19 gold medals over two days.

Fresh from ruling the 100m dash, Judilla anchored the relay quartet, which also included 1500m run winner Trisha Ramirez and 400m dash champion Jiezelle Alcantara, in 57 seconds to frustrate host Oriental Mindoro (59 seconds) and Calapan City (1:04.2).

Chua, a sophomore high school from St. Michael College of Biñan, Laguna, ruled the 100m hurdles in 18.2 seconds.

“I’m ready for the national championship. But first, I want to go home with many medals,” said the 14-year-old Chua, who is aiming to add the 400m hurdles to her collection.

Judilla earlier won the long jump and the century dash (13.6 seconds).

Most of the games were shelved yesterday after the entire province of Mindoro was placed under Signal No. 2 due to Tropical Storm “Ofel.”

Ervin Marayan scored a breakthrough for the host province after getting 43 points from five judges for the boys’ arnis anyo individual double identical weapon gold.

Another hero for Laguna emerged in table tennis when Christian Jorge Victorio subdued Calapan City’s Jerome Fernando, 10-12, 11-7, 11-7, 11-2, in the boys’ singles championship.