Dolar, Briones top aerobic gymnastics

JOSEPH Briones and national gymnast Charmaine Dolar showed outstanding form to rule the men’s and women’s aerobics gymnastics of the POC-PSC Philippine National Games at GAP gym inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex Monday night.

Briones, coach of the Letran cheering squad, ended up tied with silver medalist Francis Rivera with 16.85 points, but clinched victory on the strength of a better performance in his routine.

“I wasn’t expecting this, but I’m happy,” said Briones, who placed third in the same event last year.

Dolar tallied 21.25 points and won the event for the third consecutive time, upstaging national teammate Lynette Ann Moreno (19.175) in the talent-search tournament organized by the PSC and the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines.

Rochelyn Cerda of Rizal province picked up the bronze medal with 16.7 points.

“I didn’t have the time to practice but I performed well enough to win,” said Dolar, an Education senior at UE who competed in last year’s world aerobics championships in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sports commissioner Akiko Thomson-Guevarra, GAP president Cynthia Carrion and secretary general Bettina Pou awarded the medals and trophies to the winners.

Action in gymnastics resumed late afternoon yesterday and featured the all-around event in women’s rhythmic gymnastics. The gold medalist will be determined by the gymnast’s total scores in the hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon events.

The opening ceremony of the PNG is scheduled Friday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium with about 6,000 athletes from 41 sports expected to participate in the games, which is serving as a qualifier for the Southeast Asian Games late this year in Myanmar.

The individual competitions for the hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon are scheduled this afternoon while men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics will come off the wraps on Friday after a one-day break on Thursday.

Gymnastics will wind up on Sunday with the high-energy cheerleading contest at Rizal Memorial Coliseum.