Monday, December 17, 2007 Finally, a new winner By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
AFTER having been highly extolled for being the strongest when it comes to track and field events, the University of Cebu men’s athletes bungled their seven-year dominance and settled for a runnerup finish in the men’s overall ranking in the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. athletics competition at the Cebu City Sports Center.
University of Southern Philippines Foundation took the men’s overall title after notching nine gold medals, winning by just two golds over UC, which had seven.
Leading USPF’s charge were hurdler Harren Melendez and Eugene Delposo, who had three and two golds, respectively.
However, when the women’s and men’s medals were tallied, both UC and USPF had the same 13 golds, but UC still came out the overall winner by virtue of their silvers. UC had 13-17-7 gold-silver-bronze medals, while USPF had 13-6-10.
Yesterday’s final day of competitions produced six new records in the tertiary division and three in the high school class. The oldest records tallied by Lyle Larida and her former UC teammate and now Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Julius Nierras were wiped out.
University of San Jose Recoletos’ Love Joy Intong deleted Larida’s five-year-old record in the women’s 200m run. Intong posted 26.74, eclipsing Larida’s 26.90, which she made in 2002.
Intong almost destroyed two records of Larida yesterday. Intong finished the women’s 100m run with a time of 12.90, which was the same time Larida posted five years ago. Intong was the very first sprinter to have reached the 12-second mark after Larida.
UC stalwart Jorge Pinanonang smashed Nierras’ 2002 record in the men’s 200m run. Pinanonang reset the record to 22.64 after eclipsing Nierra’s 22.80.
Meanwhile, USPF hurdler Harren Melendres bettered his finish in the men’s 110m hurdle. Melendres clocked 15.39 yesterday to beat his own record of 15.60 he made last year.
Feat
Another record-breaking feat was that of UC’s 4x100 relay men’s team. The team improved the time to 44 after their 44.45 posting last year.
Jefferson Querubin of USJ-R, who topped the men’s shotput, improved his own mark in the event. Last year, he finished with 11.50 meters and yesterday registered 11.92 meters.
In the high school division, UC was the runaway champion winning a total of 31 golds and 17 silvers.
USPF’s Mark Dave Agdasiw also reset his 11.76 mark in the century dash after running 11.54 yesterday.
Emalito Cruz made it a 1-2 finish for USPF after taking the silver with 11.89, while Earl Salihas took the bronze with 12.56.
Lindley Navaya also reset his 23.01 mark in the 200m run after clocking 22.35 yesterday, while Darl Pitogo reset the two-year-old record of Alvin Borgador after breaching the 16-second barrier in the 110m hurdles.
USPF’s Marc Agdasi and Clint Pila took silver and bronze with 24.37 and 24.40, respectively.
Pitogo ran the race in 15.97, erasing Bordador’s 16.03 mark.
