Baguio topples foes in Batang Pinoy

BAGUIO City closed out another brilliant performance as it emerged the overall champion at the close of the Central and Northern Luzon 2011 Batang Pinoy Games with a total of 63 gold medals that went with 54 silver and 54 bronze medals.

The Summer Capital bets struck gold in taekwondo, which attracted close to a hundred young entries as the host city won 14 out of the 16 gold medals contested with only Ilocos Sur able to break Baguio's grip, with its 2 gold medals in the competition also supported by Milo, Jollibee, Standard Insurance, The British Council, Manila Bulletin, Negros Navigation-Super Ferry, and Kids 3 Food Supplement at RELIV Now for Kids.

Swimming turned out to be the most closely contested event as Baguio City, dominating the boys' competition, with only a gold medal ahead of La Union province, 8 to 7, while Angeles City and Malolos finished with 5 gold medals each.

Thirteen-year-old Jenkins Labao netted six gold medals to become the most bemedalled athlete in the competition and lead Baguio’s charges to an eight gold medal finish in the swimming team competition.

At the penultimate day of the competition, revived by the Philippine Sports Commission together with Department of Education and LGUs all over the country to discover young talents in the countryside, La Union made its presence felt behind the explosive showing of Ryan Reyes and Jerusalem Galvez, taking 4 gold medals out of the 7 at stake in the event.

It was enough for La Union to take second place in the overall standing with its 10-9-8 gold-silver-bronze medal haul, narrowly beating Malolos whose athletes delivered a similar 10 gold medal haul but had lesser silver medals with 7 to go with its 7 bronze medals in the competition sponsored by Smart, Maynilad, and Summit Mineral Drinking Water.

Reyes and Galvez impressed the crowd with their Referee-stopped contest victories with light pinweight Reyes scoring a first round knockout of Baguio City bet Brent Yosayos. "Gusto ko pong makakuha ng scholarship para maituloy ko pag aaral sa college," said the 15-year-old senior high student at the La Union National High School.

Pinweight Galvez, another senior student from Caba National High School, meanwhile, moved a step closer to realizing his childhood dream of becoming a member of the national boxing team with his victory as he joins the Luzon delegation to the national finals in Naga City next month.

La Union shone in the boys 3-on-3 basketball, followed by the city of San Jose del Monte in Bulacan and Baguio City Team A, Pangasinan emerged champion in the distaff side beating the challenge of two Baguio-based teams.

Angeles City bet Rommel Lucencio ruled the badminton boys' singles competition while Baguio City's Elinor Villanueva topped the girls' side. Mixed doubles champion was the pair of John Mark Caranto and Chyla Amor Morillo from Pangasinan.

Malolos showed its strength in badminton sweeping all the events contested, Paola Bernardo won the singles title while Christian bernardo topped the boys' side, Paola partenered with Ingrid Obnial to add the doubles title to her collection while Christian's partnership with Ralph Domici Santos produced another gold for Malolos in the boys' doubles event.

Lawn tennis was Baguio City's domain as the host city bets won all the events adding the boys' doubles title courtesy of Joshua de Guzman and Neil Tangalin while singles champion Monica Cortez added a second gold in the girls' doubles event where she partnered with Marjorie Tumapang and emerged champion.

San Juan, La Union was in 5th with 5 golds as the Luzon regional closed out Sunday, with action shifting to the National Capital Region today with the 4th leg of the 2011 Batang Pinoy Games series hosted by Makati City at the University of Makati.