Wednesday, April 23, 2008 CV frogleaps on 3rd day By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
PUERTO PRINCESA--After a lackluster performance on the first day of the 2008 Palarong Pambansa, the Region 7 athletes turned the tables around as they barged into the winners’ circle after collecting three gold medals from different event yesterday.
Winning the first gold for the region is stick fighter Joshua Paracuelles, who won the top plum in the men’s individual identical double weapon of the arnis contest.
Track-and-field
Meanwhile, over at the Ramon V. Mitra Jr Sports Complex, the track stars finally saw light courtesy of the University of Cebu star athlete Irin Baluran.
Baluran, who is on her fourth Palaro, won the gold medal in the triple jump of the secondary girls division, to mirror the outcome of last year.
It was a sweet victory for the 15 year old, who broke her personal best of 11.08 meters to reset it to 11.78 m, which she made yesterday.
The day’s other gold came from tanker Loren Dale Echavez of University of San Carlos.
Echavez, who is on her fourth Palaro had won her third gold medal in her favorite event—freestyle.
Yesterday, Echavez won the 400 meter free event sneaking past a swimmer from NCR Hannah Dato.
Echavez completed the swim with a clocking of 4:48.20 minutes, finishing by just a millisecond to Dato, who had a time of 4:48.76. The time for the swimming competition has been accurate since the competition now makes use of the dolphin timers, which is a digital system.
Echavez with teammates Quennie Endros of Dumaguete, Maria Claudine Candia of Abellana National School and Ara Denise Echavez could have won another gold medal after moving to the final round of the medley relay. They were however overpowered by other teams as they finished seven in the final swim.
Gymnastics
Apart from the three gold medals, Region 7 also copped the bronze in the team event of rhythmic sportive gymnastics competition, led by top bet Mary Carmelli Garovillo with Tracy Bardonio and Rachel Alerre.
In tennis, the team of Francis Largo, Niño Siso, Larry Antigua and Israel Abarquez won, adding four golds to Region-7’s haul.
Siso had sailed through the first singles competition with an 8-1 win over a Region 10’s Bernardine Andrew Bering.
However, the Cebuanos failed to sweep the final as Antigua and Abarquez lost in the doubles contest, 8-4.
The outcome lies in the hands of Largo, who is currently playing in the deciding singles contest.
Volleyball
After getting off track in the first day, the secondary girls volleyball team fended off early elimination and won emphatically over their opponents in two sets.
Meanwhile, the Palaro was rocked yesterday when a news hit that a busload of delegates fell of a cliff injuring a lot of people. However, PIO Alrohben Goh said that they were not members of the Palaro delegation.
This, however, did not stop DepEd Usec Ramon Bacani to issue an advisory to all the regional heads to minimize outings outside of Puerto Princesa.
