PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- Unhappy with her first day swims, Liaa Margarette Amoguis staged a strong comeback by scooping two gold medals Tuesday, August 27, day 2 of the ongoing Batang Pinoy 2019 National Championships swimming competition.
Palarong Pambansa 2019 gold medalist Amoguis, 12, a Grade 6 student of The Abbas Orchard School, went head to head with Laguna’ s Qaantreulle Wangkay at the start but the Dabawenya raced past the latter in the final 50 meters to clinch the girls 12-under 200-meter freestyle gold.
Amoguis clocked two minutes and 21.43 seconds while Wangkay finished in 2:25.83 to end up with the silver. Renavive Subida (2:27.71) of Dasmarinas, Cavite, got the bronze.
Her feat came on the heels of capturing the gold in girls 15-under 400m individual medley (IM) where fellow Dabawenya Juliana Marien Villanueva salvaged the bronze.
“No, I did not expect to win my events today because yesterday my times were kind of bad. I just had faith in God that I could win the gold,” Amoguis said in an interview with SunStar Davao.
She was unfazed by Wangkay’s challenge earlier, quoting her mother Cynthia’ s words, “Mom said ‘the one who wants it the most wins it the most’. I wanted it the most. God gave it to me and God answered my prayers. Hoping for the best that I could win my remaining events. I was really off yesterday, I was not focused on my swim. Today, I wanted to make up for my silver (girls 12-under 200m IM) and bronze (girls 12-under 100m butterfly) that I got yesterday (Monday).”
Davao City’ s swimming team hauled a total of four golds, four silvers and four bronzes, excluding relay results, as of yesterday presstime.
Aside from Amoguis’ s two golds, her elder sister Lora Micah nabbed the girls 13-15 200m IM gold while Pietro Dominic Requiza snatched the boys 12-under 100m freestyle gold during the first day of the swimfest.
Lora, however, fell short in her girls 200m backstroke bid as she settled for the silver yesterday along with Ivo Nikolai Enot of Colegio de San Ignacio who placed second in boys 13-15 200m backstroke. The other silver came from Villanueva in girls 800m freestyle.
Requiza (boys 1-under 50m backstroke) and Alissa Ysabelle Lazarraga (girls 13-15 100m butterfly) copped bronzes. The latter, however, came fourth in girls 13-15 50m butterfly.