JEMUELLE Espiritu of Baguio City took the first archery gold after firing 661 on 333-328 aggregate in the Luzon Leg of the 2019 Philippine National Youth Games-Batang Pinoy at the Isabela Sports Complex in Ilagan City, Isabela.

Espiritu bested by a mile a field that included Geriemee Ranchez of La Union and Julian Harman Resuello of Pangasinan, who fired 619 and 610 to settle for the silver and bronze, respectively, at the City Hotel open field.

Aubrey Tom of Cainta, Rizal stole some of the spotlight from national record-holder Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh of Paranaque and scooped up three gold medals in swimming Tuesday, March 19.

Baguio City also dominated the first day of taekwondo competition with six golds held at the San Felipe covered court while San Jose City, Nueva Ecija took home seven gold medals in pencak silat held at the Barangay Osmena covered court.

Quezon City also won five golds in taekwondo, Pasig City had two while host Ilagan City, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro and Tayabas City each had one.

Mark Jay Bacojo and Gio Troy Ventura gave Dasmarinas, Cavite a pair of golden efforts in chess by topping the rapid event for boys 12-under and 13-15 years old at the Xentro Mall.

Jenelle Ann Adriano and Luke Albert Capulong of San Jose, Nueva Ecija struck for a couple of golds each in pencak silat at the Barangay Osmeña covered court.

Adriano, 11, topped the pre-teen girls tunggal and joined forces with Camille Treses and Anne Mariel dela Rosa to capture the team regu division while Capulong, 10, ruled the pre-teen boys tungal and ganda with Samuel Benedict Ramos.

While all eyes are on Mojdeh, the owner of national marks in the 100m and 200m butterfly, Tom, 12, splashed her way to golds in the girls’ 12-under 200m individual medley in two minutes in 37.95 seconds, 100m freestyle in 1:04.24 ad 50m backstroke in 34.20 to become the first triple gold medal winner of this weeklong meet for in and out-of-school youth athletes aged 15 years and below.