Abelgos nabs 1st gold

CEBU, Philippines —  The Sisters of Mary School-Boystown trackster Jessie Abelgos nabbed the first gold as the University of Cebu started hot during the opening day of the 23rd Milo Little Olympics Visayas Finals yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center.

Abelgos, a Grade-12 student, secured the gold in the 5,000 meter secondary boy’s by carving a personal best of 17 minutes and 19 seconds, 38 seconds faster than his time last year.

Abelgos outpaced Jemar Morales (17:36) of Abellana National School and Dave Nicole Navio (18:01) of University of San Carlos-BED, who settled for second and third place, respectively.

Meanwhile, UC athletes showed that they serious in reclaiming lost glory after an impressive start in gymnastics and athletics  with 10 gold, six silver and three bronze medals.

Sisters Eugene Ginell and Euricka Soronio had a 1-2 finish in the girls secondary division. UC also swept all four individual golds in the elementary level courtesy of Geanne Alexis Rallos.

Mart Chan Toregosa dominated the secondary boys 400m run with a time of 53:42, while his teammate Crystal Villanueva ruled the secondary girls high jump with her 1.30m mark. Jake Dagatan and Krystelle Leyson handed one silver apiece via the high jump and 100m hurdles event.

Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu snared two golds plus one silver, while Taytung School of Bacolod City got two golds. Holy Name University and SMS-Boystown both got one medal each.

Ormoc Immaculate School led the charge in the elementary with two golds and one silver, while Talamban Elementary School got two golds and Cebu Institute of Technology-University with a gold and a silver.

Over at the pool, the Negrenses made a splashing performance breaking three records.

University of St. La Salle-Bacolod’s Busty Jalandra established a new record in the secondary boys 400m freestyle with a time of 5:13.54, breaking Michael Lozada’s record of 5:21.75

Alexi Kouzenye Cabayaran of Mambulac E.S., for her part, erased the two-year-old record of Marielle Estreba in the girls’12 400m  freestyle event. Cabayaran registered a time of 5:06.45 surpassing Estreba’s 5:18.53.

Also, St. Scholastica Academy’s Raegan Joseph Garbanzos is the new record holder in the 400m freestyle boys with a time of 4:27.48. He broke Andrew Kim Remolino’s old record of 4:38.97.

So far, the visiting athletes have topped the first 11 events of swimming with only two Cebuanos in Zurieelle Galo and Mikhal Tubesa managing to get gold medals.— Caecent No-ot Magsumbol