|
Friday, April 21, 2006
Niños start to pull away
By Jade S. Violeta
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
TAGBILARAN City – Defending champion Cebu City Niños withstood a tough competition from host Bohol Province as the 12-time overall champion took the lead in both the Elementary and Secondary divisions of the 2006 Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) meet after the second day of action yesterday at the Carlos P. Garcia Sports Complex.
After a surprise hot start by host Bohol Province during the opening day, the Niños went on the offensive in swimming, gymnastics and taekwondo events.
The Secondary division bets of the Niños ended the second day with an overall total of 533 points with the bulk of its points coming from its swimming and gymnastics athletes even as Bohol Province continued to challenge the Cebuanos at the tracks.
Points earned
Cebu City’s tankers, under coach Lando Alvarez, amassed a two-day total of 205 points as the event came to an end yesterday, while its gymnastics team added 124 points.
The athletics bets of the Niños in the Secondary division bounced back from a slow start as they chipped in 133 points to Cebu City’s campaign for a 13th-straight overall crown, while the taekwondo squad ended its campaign by adding 71 points.
At distant second in the Secondary division is the Bohol Province with 148.5 points, while rounding out the top five are Dumaguete City (144), Mandaue City (102) and Negros Oriental (84).
Cebu City’s Diane Cañeda avenged her runner-up finish on opening day as the University of Cebu tanker topped the 100-meter Secondary Girls backstroke in one minute and 16.45 seconds and the 200m freestyle in 2:28.76 to lead the Cebu City tankers’ mighty campaign at the pool.
Also doling out first-place finishes for the Niños in swimming’s final day were the 400x100m medley relay Boys and Girls teams, Jeffrey Yana (100m breaststroke), John Solon (400m freestyle) and the Boys and Girls 4x50m freestyle relay teams.
Taekwondo
Cebu City also won golds in taekwondo courtesy of Richard Caingles (pinweight), John Mark Bas (bantamweight), Wyndale Sagayno (featherweight), Julie Eve Dublin (flyweight) and Magdalena Tabalino (Girls welterweight).
The Niños’ strongest show of strength was in Women’s Artistic Gymnastics at the Bohol Cultural Center as they swept all top spots in the individual and team events with University of the Visayas’ Willan Bacalla winning the plums in the balance beam, floor exercise and overall events and finishing third in the vault competition.
Cebu City also grabbed the championship in the team event, while Cebu Province garnered second place.
Athletics
Also showing excellent performance for Cebu City was UV’s Naomi Soco, who ruled the vault competition while grabbing the second spots in the balance beam, floor exercise and overall events.
University of Southern Philippines’ Renatina Lipasana completed the dominant showing of the Niños as she finished second in the vault exercise, while landing at third in the balance beam, floor exercise and overall events.
At the tracks, winning gold medals for the Niños were Annabelle Nuñez (Girls 800m), Sheena Gacayan (Girls 3,000m steeple chase), Almira Gay Sadaya (Girls 100m hurdles), 2005 Iloilo City Palarong Pambansa record-holder Irin Baluran (Girls long jump), Jasper Basister (Boys discus throw) and Stephanie Sanico Girls discus throw).
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 21, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
