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PUERTO
PRINCESA—The National Capital Region (NCR) found itself
making waves in the pool earlier this week. On
Wednesday, it was the Big City’s foes on turf that was
left eating tartan dust.
NCR
tracksters banked on familiar names—surnames,
actually—as they made a dent in track and field in Day
Three of the Palarong Pambansa at the Ramon V. Mitra Jr.
Sports Complex.
Second-generation athletes Isidro del Prado Jr. and Jose
Renato Unso made their fathers—and Team NCR, more
significantly—proud after copping two gold medals
Wednesday.
Del
Prado won the title in the secondary boys’ 800 meters,
an event his father and namesake, a two-time Olympian,
ruled in the 1980s. Unso, whose father Renato was a
force in Southeast Asia during the same decade, topped
the secondary boys’ 5,000 meters.
“My dad
is very happy,” del Prado, 16, gushed. “He couldn’t come
here because he has a prior commitment to the national
team, but I called him up immediately after I won. He’s
proud in the same way I’m proud I didn’t let him down.”
The
recent San Sebastian high-school graduate, who hasn’t
decided which suitor from among a handful of
college-athletics officials he would answer, almost fell
short on his way to providing the tournament’s most
dramatic title clincher.
He was
running fourth going into the final 200 meters before he
stepped on the gas and darted to first in the last 100.
Del Prado timed one minute and 57.6 seconds, edging
runners from Southern Tagalog and host Mimaropa Region.
Unso
clocked 56.4 seconds, besting foes from Mimaropa and
Central Visayas.
Del
Prado’s victory may have set yet another thriller in the
200-meter finals on Friday where he will compete against
Lindley Fran Navaja, the Palaro’s two-time 100-meter
champion.
Navaja,
a 16-year-old raised in
Cebu
City,
breasted the tape via proverbial photo finish. He came
in 11.212 seconds, while Michael Calayo of Central Luzon
settled for second after clocking 11.213 seconds.
Navaja,
who was approached with athletic scholarships by
NCR-based school officials after his victory, looked
forward to his head-to-head with del Prado in the 200
meters.
“I was
denied a chance to win [in the 200] so I’m going to do
what needs to be done to win, especially since this is
my last year,” Navaja said.
Del
Prado, whose father has been an RP team coach for some
time, is also entering college in June, which means this
Palaro is his first and last.
“I got
into [the 800s] only last year when my dad took me to
one of his coaching clinics. I liked what I saw and I
decided I wanted to do it, too,” del Prado recalled.
In
girls’ competition, Ruffa Bargola of NCR secured the
gold in the high-school 100 meters. Bargola, who
finished runner-up last year, said she remained guarded
about her chances even though the Palaro’s defending
champion wasn’t competing this week.
“I
wasn’t expecting to win, knowing the kind of competition
you always get in these top-level tournaments,” Bargola
said. “The only time I believed I could win was when I
reached the finish line first.”
Bargola,
also 16 and an incoming college freshman, defeated Ana
Marie Jagocoy of Western Visayas by a hairline. Bargola
timed 12.984 seconds, while Jagocoy was at 12.987.
Justine
Tabunda, the NCR’s representative in the secondary boys’
5,000 meters, was the Big City’s fourth gold winner. He
tacked 16 minutes and 27.8 seconds to top bets from
Cotobato and Ilocos Regions.
Josie
Malacao’s gold in the secondary girls’ 800 meters was
Western Visayas’s seventh mint. The team from Region 6
upped its medal count to seven-four-three,
gold-silver-bronze tally. NCR (four-two-three) and
Central Visayas (two-three-two) are running second and third, respectively.
The
golds in both gender divisions in hurdles, 400 and 1,500
meters are up for grabs Thursday.
NCR
overwhelming in hoops
In
high-school basketball, three teams ended the
preliminaries with perfect records.
NCR
soared to its third-straight win with an 88-41 rout of
Eastern Visayas. Not to be outdone were Western Visayas
and Northern Mindanao, which also won by double digits
to likewise keep their slates perfect.
Western
Visayas uncorked 24 points in a second-quarter offensive
splurge to down Cagayan Valley, 66-54, while
Northern Mindanao outscored the Cordillera Autonomous Region, 27-18, in the
fourth to prevail, 93-80.
All
three unbeaten teams booked seats into the quarterfinals
that begin Wednesday.
The top
two teams in each of the four divisions enter the
quarters.
Southern
Tagalog and
Cagayan Valley
are also expected to advance. Zamboanga, the runner-up
last year, did not field a team.
Western
Visayas IX untouched
IN
baseball, Western Visayas remained overpowering in a
second-straight shutout win. The team from Region 6
pulverized the Davao Region, 11-0, in three innings
where the mercy rule was applied. The same club scorched
Zamboanga with a 10-0 score. NCR’s victory was less
impressive—a 5-2 decision over
Central Visayas—but
the Big City still remained unbeaten.
In
tennis, Central Visayas emerged champions in boys’
secondary team category. Northern Mindanao and NCR
finished second and third, respectively.
In
badminton, Southern Tagalog picked up the gold medal,
followed by NCR and Western Visayas, which completed the
top three.
Also for
the differently abled
THIS
year’s Palarong Pambansa is also for the differently
abled elementary and high-school students.
As
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus has said, special events
of persons with disabilities is something to look
forward to in the Palarong.
Included
in the Special Events are the mentally challenged, who
are joining the track events, and the visually impaired
for shot put and goal ball.
Differently-abled students braved the heat as they
participated in the special events on Wednesday.
In an
interview with one of the trainers, Marilou Algabre of
Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon),
said they are hoping that the Special Events will boost
the self-esteem of the “children with special needs.”
Josie
Lakilak, a social welfare worker, said the differently
abled students have long been deprived of such enjoyment
in participating in the Palaro.
“We know
that children like them also have the potential and we
should develop that as they also bring pride to our
country,” she said.
Lapus
also stressed the department is determined to continue
handling “sports and culture,” including the annual
Palaro. He said this is because “no other agency can
handle the events” of the Palaro.
The
DepEd, Lapus said, is already coordinating with other
education stakeholders and members of Congress for the
passage of a bill that would effectively amend Republic
Act 9155.
RA 9155,
otherwise called the Governance of Basic Education Act,
renamed the Department of Education, Culture and Sports
(DECS) as DepEd and redefined the role of field offices,
which includes regional, division officers, district
officers and schools in the country. (With Claudette
Mocon) |
