Monday, September 10, 2007 One Ana gets 6 golds By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Silliman University (SU) elementary division banked on the sterling performance in a one-girl show to end the first weekend of the 12th Milo Little Olympics at the helm of the standings.
SU-E’s ranking laid on the shoulders of swimmer Ana Paraiso, who collared all six gold medals, for her team to share the leadership in the elementary division with first day leader Don Vicente Rama Elementary School. Don Vicente earned another gold in taekwondo, for a 6-1-6 gold-silver-bronze medal haul.
Paraiso may have been responsible for uplifting the fate of an entire delegation from Negros, but her exploits paled in comparison to the feat of other swimmers her age 12 years ago.
It has been 12 years since the Milo Little Olympics came to the shores of Cebu and most of the athletes at that time have already long faded from memory as the years that went by--but not their records.
Except for a few. It has been years since Lynette Ang, Matthew Vega and the Khun sisters Khaylyla and Khawinda were called the pool wonders, but they continue to haunt upstart swimmers as their names are cemented on the unbeaten records in the swimming results sheet of Milo Little Olympics that date back since the sports fest started in Cebu in 1996.
Ang and Vega were only elementary students when they tallied nine of the 15 still-to-be-broken records. Now, Ang is already on her way to becoming a doctor and Vega is a college instructor and their records remain unbeaten for 12 years.
Meanwhile, the swimming event rounded up yesterday, but their records remain intact, where these remain on the archive to take another year-long respite until the next Milo Olympics, when another swimmer sets on to challenge their records.
It is only halfway into the 12th Milo Little Olympics and already, defending champion University of Cebu (UC), ravages the secondary division as it pulls away, possibly for good.
UC hauled in a total of 25 gold medals of the 39 at stake in the first two days of the competition. It is so confidently on top that even if the gold medals of the next 10 schools were combined, UC will still prevail over them. UC also has 14 silvers and six bronzes collected from athletics, badminton, swimming and table tennis events.
Abellana National School is at a distant second with a 4-5-9 medal tally and University of San Carlos North Campus with 4-3-1.
Other than swimming and athletics, which UC is famous for, the other event, which proves to be a gold mine for UC is table tennis as it swept the singles titles yesterday.
Table tennis
UC paddlers Jhinno Angelo Selma and Edward John Obong pulled off a 1-2 finish in the boys’ singles, while their lady counterparts Elona Dane Tormis and Mary Angelie Motel took the top two plums in the distaff side.
In the elementary division, the paddlers from Colegio del Sto. Niño contributed for the team’s two golds. Jean Phillippe Honoridez won the first gold in the boys’ singles over Lemuel Agbon of Pardo Elementary School.
Honoridez’ teammates Blaise Jaban and Nicole Lopez won the other gold after dominating the girls doubles finals over Thessa Teng and Ilyana Miranda of Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHS-J).
Cebu City Central School’s James Tracyl Impuesto and Jerome Impuesto won the title in the boys doubles over Guizo ES’ Renzel Seno and Darryl Manulat.
In badminton, Reymark Go won University of the Visayas’ lone gold after defeating Mark Sua of Bethany Christian School, 21-16, 21-19 to claim the boys singles title.
Janel Dihinsian of SHS-J won the title in the girls division with a three-set win over Celia Kimberly Li of Bethany.
In taekwondo, winning another gold for DVRES is Patrick Keith Nacorda. Surprisingly, DVRES only won one gold in the boys class after its girls team raked in four of the six at stake on the first day.
The other gold medal winners were Barili ES’ Frank Mark Esuadro, Kyle Oranio of Fellowship Baptist College, Jordan Ver Suan of Pardo ES, Jeremy Orag of St. Joseph’s College, Deb Matthew Daclan of Jack and Jill School, Karl Keeanu Celo of Alfredo Marañon ES, Kylle John Flores of City Central School, Stevel Carl Tan of Don Bosco College, Eric Garces of FBC Christian School, Benjie Jance of St. Roch Academy and Jeffrey Rey Tibus of Biniquil ES.
In a recent development in volleyball, the title for the secondary boys division was suddenly open for grabs for anyone after the champion team could not defend the title this year.
This was after University of Southern Philippines Foundation was denied entry after it submitted all the needed requirements late.
The deadline for submission was Thursday, but USPF submitted its documents hours later than the deadline.
In football, the Don Bosco College survived a fiery comeback by Paref-Springdale and won, 3-2, on penalty shootouts.
“They scored first and we equalized,” Springdale coach Mario Ceniza said.
It was a different story in the high school contest as Springdale blanked Colegio del Inmaculada Concepcion-Mandaue, 9-0, with Miko Garciao scoring a hat trick.
Springdale will next face DBC, while Abellana National School, which routed Bright Academy, 7-0, will take on Sacred Heart School-Jesuits.
In the girls’ contest, SHS-Hijas de Jesus scored their second win, 7-1, against Cebu City Science High School. (with ML)
