Monday, September 15, 2008 Gymnasts save UV By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
EVERYTHING happened just as expected—the University of Cebu dominated the meet from start to finish in the secondary division and the gymnasts of University of the Visayas traipsed their way to the top of the podium in the last two days of the Milo Little Olympics.
For the second straight year, UV’s gymnasts were the sole reason for winning the overall title in the elementary division with 12 golds, 6 silver and 10 bronzes. It was a close call for UV, who only found out about their win late last night.
“We were pressured especially when we learned that we were just a few gold medals ahead of Silliman. I could not explain the anxiety I was feeling,” said UV head coach Darlene Dela Pisa.
Dela Pisa’s stalwart, Tracy Badonio was the hero as she swept all the golds in her events.
However, it did not come easy for Badonio, as she succumbed to pressure in her first apparatus.
“I was crying before I started because I was so nervous,” said Badonio, whose six golds virtually steered UV to the overall plum for the second time, earning her a second straight Most Outstanding Athlete award.
Badonio won all the rhythmic gymnastics events—rope, hoop, ball, ribbon, the all around and the team competition.
Because of UV gymnasts’ impressive performance, it thwarted Silliman University from the top of the ranking.
On the other hand, Silliman, which enjoyed the lead until the final tally at 8 p.m. proved that a lean but mean team can dominate the meet.
Toughest
All it did was bring its toughest swimmers to almost pull the rug from under the locals.
The team won five gold medals at the Aquatic Center yesterday for its 11 golds, 3 silvers and one bronze but at the end of the day, it was only good for a second.
Leading the assault for Silliman were Ana Daniela Paraiso, who won two gold medals in the 200 IM and 50 fly and James Gravador, who won three golds in the 200 IM, 50 fly and 200 m free relay.
Meanwhile, on a sad note, swimmer Paula Abigail Vega, failed in her bid to sweep the gold medals in all of her events, but still wound up with a respectable five gold medals.
Spoiling Vega’s bid for a sweep in her individual events was Maasin Christian Academy’s Abegail Sakib in the 400 m IM.
Sakib and Vega pulled off a Phelps-Cavic when they seemed to touch the pad at the same time. But it was actually Sakib, who finished first with a time of six minutes and 11.43 seconds to Vega’s 6:12.22.
Despite this, Vega still had a hand at helping steer UC to another over-all title with 34 golds, 20 silver and 11 bronzes.
Yesterday, UC wrapped up its campaign with one gold in taekwondo, courtesy of Claire Panaginip, two golds for dominating the doubles events of the men’s and girls badminton competition and one in chess.
Although UC’s finish this year is a far cry from their 41-18-7 tally last year, athletic director Bernard Ricablanca was happy.
“It is still very good because some of our athletes this year are new as those who won the golds last year have already graduated,” Ricablanca said adding that as incentive, the P40,000 the school gets for being the top team will be divided among the medalists.
Meanwhile, while everything happened as expected, organizer Ricky Ballesteros said that this year’s Milo also has its share of surprises.
“There were so many surprising outcomes for Milo this year. Most obvious of which is the number of upsets happening in almost all the ball games,” said organizer Ricky Ballesteros.
The champions in girls volleyball, girls football, boys volleyball, secondary girls volleyball, were booted out and new winners were crowned this year.
