BAGUIO CITY -- The Cagayan de Oro bets slowed down in the third and fourth day of action in the ongoing 2017-2018 Batang Pinoy National Championships here.
Still, Team CDO improves from 18th to 12th place with 5 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze medals to overtake Cebu City that slid to 13th spot with 4-7-9 gold-silver-bronze effort in the partial and official medal count as of 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
Team CDO had only a silver and two bronzes after the cut-off of medal count in Day 3.
Fourteen-year-old Francis Castulo, a pride of Barangay Macabalan and a grade 9 student of Canitoan National High School, finished second behind the gold medalist from Pangasinan in the 15-under boys long jump event.
The long-legged Castulo, a bronze medalist in last year’s Milo Little Olympics Mindanao Leg, landed 6 meters and 54 centimeters, while the first placer performed best with 6 meters and 74 centimeters.
Corpus Christi School’s table netter Janna Ann Paculba, on the other hand, fell short of expectation after settling for bronze in the table tennis girls cadet singles event, though she won a gold with Andrei Yucada in the cadet mixed doubles event on the first day.
Xavier University High School’s Jay Lawson, a Filipino-Australian breed, added another bronze in the 400 meter 12-under boys free style swimming.
On Thursday morning, the duo of Tia Bualat and Renee Maxene Olango barged into the semifinal round in badminton cadet girls’ doubles event.
Nine of the 10-man Oro boxing team already assured the city a bronze each after reaching the semifinals on Tuesday.
In fact, four of them made the finals on Wednesday after beating their respective semifinal foes all in majority decision.
Oro’s Angelo Lofranco defeated Roger Esclamado of Mandaue City in the sch boys 38 kgs, while fellow Eljay Pamisa beat Bienjamer Codoy of Cebu in the sch boys 40 kgs.
Jhasli John Illudar bested Kidapawan’s Dryll Dave Lagazo in the sch boys 42 kgs, while Rhein John Gidor edged Matmat Dalugdog of Tarlac in the sch boys 44 kgs.