THE 15-person karatedo team gave Cebu Province a big boost after earning seven gold medals in the Batang Pinoy National Championships in SM City Baguio.

Karatedo also won four silver medals and seven bronzes, padding Cebu Province’s haul to 20-7-12 as of 2 p.m yesterday.

Precious Avegail Belicario of University of Cebu (UC) and Janine Narboada from Talamban Elementary School each won two gold medals, while Trexie Joy Ogoc, Rome Florenz Metante and Allena Mariz Benitez added one each for Cebu Province.

Belicario ruled the 13-15 girls’ advanced kata and the 150cm kumite, while Narboada won the 10-11 kata and the 140cm kumite.

“This team right now is composed of four clubs. The students trained with their clubs for this for about a year but one month before the tournament, we met to practice together,” coach Rhodee Saavedra told SunStar Cebu.

Saavedra said that they expected to deliver medals to Cebu Province but they never thought they were going to win seven gold medals.

“I’m happy that we are able to contribute gold medals for the province. Though karatedo has been a constant medal producer for Cebu Province, we did not expect to win seven gold medals,” she said.

Belicario, who has joined six editions of Batang Pinoy, said that she prepared for the weather in Baguio City this year.

“Before going to Baguio we really anticipated the cold weather and prepared for it,” she said.

Saavedra said that when they arrived in Baguio they trained early in the morning without jackets.

“Good thing they were able to adjust because it will really affect the performance of the kids especially in the executions in kata,” she said.

The Cebu Province karatedo team can still add more medals to their haul since the boys’ kumite was still ongoing as of press time. RSC