5 Palaro records tumble

BRYAN Pacheco of CLRAA breaks the record in javelin throw. EDWIN BELLOSILLO

DUMAGUETE CITY—Catherine Bondad of NCR launched her bid for a third straight Most Outstanding Athlete award by accounting for one of four swimming records set yesterday even as Bryan Pacheco of Central Luzon became the first record-breaker in athletics of the 2013 Palarong Pambansa here.

Bondad, the 2011 and 2012 Palaro Most Outstanding Athlete, nailed two golds at San Lorenzo Teves Aquatic Center with the 14-year-old San Beda-Alabang incoming junior smashing the record in the girls’ high school 100-meter backstroke with a time of one minute, 7.47 seconds.

“I want to win all seven events I’m entered, I’m well prepared and confident I can surpass myself,” said Bondad who also ruled the  400m freestyle to become the meet’s first double gold winner in the high school division.

Bondad,  who bettered the 1:07.94 mark of NCR’s Dorothy Hong in 2008,  swept her seven events in 2011 as an elementary  student and went 6-of-7 last year during her maiden stint in the high school division.

Pacheco, bouncing back from a silver medal in the shot put the other day, captured the boys’ high school javelin gold with a throw of 57.81 meters  at Gov. Mariano Perdices Memorial Stadium to smash the previous mark of 51.51m set by Danilo Abarra of Ilocos Region last year in Lingayen.

National Capital Region’s Joshua Vincent Patalud (56.75m) and Western Visayas’ Renzy John Gemolaga (55.10m) also surpassed the old record in placing second and third, respectively.

The day’s three other new marks came in elementary swimming with Regina Erin Castrillo of NCR claiming two and Central Luzon’s Rafael Barreto nailing one while producing three golden efforts which was the best by an athlete so far.

The 13-year-old Castrillo broke the 17-year-old girls’ 50-meter butterfly mark with a time of  29.68 seconds during the preliminaries that wiped out  the 30.65 standard set by Lynette Ang of NCR in 1996.  But the St. Theresa’s 8th grader took the gold in the afternoon finals in  a slower time of 30.14 seconds.

Castrillo, also gunning for a seven-gold romp after winning five in Lingayen last year, then joined hands with  Raissa Gavino, Joella Marie Consunji and Xiardi Chua to win  the 200m medley relay gold in 2:13.52, beating  the old 2:14.31 mark set by another NCR team in 2006.

Barreto ruled the boys’  200m free in 2:08.12, erasing the old mark of 2:09.33 by Omar Philip Dacera in 2009.

The surge in record-breaking performances came on the heels of  an announcement by the Department of Education to reward each gold medal P3,000 and each new record P3,000. Each member of the champion team will also get P1,000