Manigque, Sotto share B Pinoy honors

DUMAGUETE, Philippines — Tagbilaran’s Gabriel Manigque led a quartet of swimmers who swept their five events while Cebu City’s Rick Angelo Sotto zeroed in on his fifth gold in athletics in the Batang Pinoy Games Visayas leg here yesterday.

Manigque capped his campaign in style by ruling the 13-15-year-old 200m freestyle in two minutes, .07.05 second for his fifth straight individual gold at the close of the swimming competitions at the Lorenzo Teves Aqua Center.

Joining Manigque in the ranks of multiple medalists was Bohol provincemate Ange Lyn Decabo, who ruled the girls 13-15 100m breaststroke (1:23.59) and 50m free (30.69) in the meet organized and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.

Jennuel Booh de Leon of Aklan also picked up a pair of golds in the boys 12-under division in the 200m free (2:25.46) and 200m fly while Bohol’s Chloe Laurente added the girls 12-U 200m fly gold (2:53.37) to her tally in duplicating the feat of their senior swimmers.

“This is unbelievable. It’s like acing a test,” said Manigque, 15, a Grade 8 varsity swimmer at UE, of his accomplishments.

Aklan handily took swimming overall honors with a tally of 15 gold, 10 silver and 4 bronze medals, Bacolod placed second (8-6-7) and Ormoc City, Leyte, was a close third (8-4-6).

Sotto, meanwhile, hiked his haul to four golds after topping the triple jump and helping Cebu City rule the 4x100-meter relay (47.3 seconds).

A Grade 7 student at the Ateneo de Cebu, Sotto admitted that his triumph in the triple jump with a leap of 13.57 meters in his sixth and final attempt “was lucky because I knew my teammate Rex (Ammangpang) was stronger than me in this event.”

Sotto also swept the boys high jump (1.67) and long jump (6.29) crowns and will be gunning for his fifth gold in the 4x400-meter relays tomorrow.