SAN JOSE de Buenavista, Antique—Calabarzon’s Veruel Verdadero and Eastern Visayas’s Bianca Jane Combate struck like lightning on another hot and humid day in the 60th Palarong Pambansa to crown themselves as prince and princess of sprint on Wednesday.
Not even a 40-degree reading could stop the two athletes from finally snaring gold at the Binarayan Sports Complex as they breezed through their finals with relative ease.
Verdadero topped the secondary boys’ century dash with a 10.96-second clocking, making John Carlo Yuson (11.14) of Cagayan Valley and Kennard Alarba (11.19) of Western Visayas eat dust.
The gold was the first for the Pasig City-born Verdadero, who settled for silver in the 4x100m and bronze in the 4x400m relays in Legazpi City last year.
His strategy this year? Start strong and finish first.
“I just wanted to have a great start and to maintain my stride. I avoided being too aggressive because I will lose my focus,” the incoming Grade 9 student at Emilio Aguinaldo College-Immaculate Concepcion Academy said.
Combate, on the other hand, lost his father to complications from acute ulcer and turned to athletics to keep her spirit up. She had a lot of it on Thursday.
The 14-year-old scholar of the Leyte Sports Academy ruled secondary girls division with a time of 12.38 seconds, shoving Eliza Cuyom of Calabarzon to the silver with her 12.50 seconds and Samantha Limos, last year’s champion, to the bronze with 12.55 seconds.
Combate was discovered by his coach, Damaso Oridan, and brought her to the school that houses potential young athletes in Leyte and nearby provinces. She dedicated her win to his “second father” and her family who tirelessly supported her athletics career.
“I’m giving this win to my coach and family,” Combate said. “They helped me all throughout my training and competitions.”
Negros Island Region’s Kate Julienne Martinez, meanwhile, broke the 10-year-old record of 33.07 meters Maika de Oro set in 2007 in elementary girls discus throw with a heave of 35.56 meters. Irish de Guzman (30.22m) of Cagayan Valley got the silver while Jeweliza Sarabosing (29.65m) of Northern Mindanao took the bronze.
National Capital Region’s Hannah Lalaine Perez almost swept the women’s artistic gymnastics secondary events by pocketing five gold medals. She topped the vault, single bar and balance beam to rule the all-around event. She was joined by Janielyn Baure and Vigie Anne Calleja to steer the NCR for the team gold.
NCR’s success in several fronts earned the reigning champions a 50-27-20 front-running gold-silver-bronze tally with Western Visayas (14-8-14) still a far second and Calabarzon (10-22-23) third.
Eastern Visayas also made its presence felt half-way through the games by winning six gold medals in secondary wrestling.
Anthony Obias (42 kilograms), Diomel Hugo (46kgs) and Anthony Pangan (54kgs) won gold medals in the boys contest, while Veronica Ompod (40kgs), Andrea Rowella Abrea (48kgs) and Angela Alferez (56kgs) prevailed in the girls side.
Zamboanga Peninsula’s Romel John Antaran topped the secondary boys’ 8-ball event to win the first gold medal offered in billiards, which is debuting as a regular sport in these games. Vladimir Piscos of Eastern Visayas and Marvin Asis of Calabarzon bagged the silver and bronze, respectively.
Image credits: Roy Domingo