Track wonder makes it 3

NAGA CITY—Mary Antoinette Diesto cranked up her bid for the most outstanding athlete award by topping the girls’ 100-meter dash for her third gold medal even as Malolos City and Laguna scored shocking victories in badminton and Davao City dominated judo Monday in the Batang Pinoy 2011 national finals here.

Diesto, the 13-year-old track wonder from Bacolod, timed 13.15 seconds to take the century dash gold after ruling the long jump (5.0 meters) and triple jump (10.55m) in the first two days at the Metro Naga Sports Complex.

“I want to go to London for that sports program like everybody else,” said Diesto in Filipino, referring to the scholarship grant to the St. Edmund’s School in London and tickets to watch the Olympic Games live next year.

Western Visayas backed up Diesto’s victory with a golden sweep of the 4X400-meter relays even as Baguio made its presence felt with two more victories through Angela Anganayon in the girls’ 3,000m (11:41.11) and Angela Carunungan in the girls’ 200m (27.13).

In badminton, Joella Geva de Vera of Laguna and John Edgard Reyes of Malolos, silver medalists in the regional eliminations, pulled off upset victories against their respective opponents at the Ateneo de Naga main campus.

De Vera outlasted Ma. Elisha Ongcuanco of Santiago City, 21-19, 21-12, to snare the girls’ singles gold. She barged into the semis after eliminating Baguio leg champion Paola Beatris Bernardo, 21-19, 21-17.

Reyes bested Visayan leg titlist Josh Mark Maquelabit of Maasin City, 21-19, 21-14, for the boys’ singles title.

Also grabbing a piece of the limelight were archers Bianca Roxas Chua Gotuaco and Luis Gabriel Moreno, who bagged one more gold each in the team events. Both amassed three golds each.

Davao City flexed its muscle in judo at the LCC Mall in Sabang town, grabbing seven of the 13 gold medals at stake.

Producing the golds for Davao City were Stephanie Calamba (44 kg), Riza Mae Labanse (48 kg), Sydney Tancontian (52 kg) in the girls’ division, and James Velez (46kg), Christian Albanjo (55kg), Carlo Dave Aseneta (66kg) and Neil Eric Pena (90kg) in boys’ action.

Velez and Laganse were also named most outstanding athletes in judo because of their impressive showing.

Misamis Oriental sent six fighters to the boxing semifinals, Tayabas qualified five while Panabo and Maasin City had three fighters still in contention.

In table tennis at University of Nueva Caceres, John Paul Gubaton and Jaezl Mae Ingeniero took the boys’ and girls’ singles golds, respectively. Alexis Volante and Lyr Leyva nailed the mixed doubles gold for the National Capital Region.