More Palaro marks shattered

NAGA CITY–A high school high jumper from Pila, Laguna and a youth discus thrower from Zamboanga del Sur sustained the momentum of the first day assault on Palaro marks as they struck for golds in record-breaking fashion yesterday in the Palarong Pambansa at the Metro Naga Sports Complex.

Southern Tagalog’s Paolo Martinez, who is training under former high jump national record holder Elmer Reyes, copped the secondary high jump gold medal after clearing the bar at 1.90 to eclipse the 1.88 mark set by Aurelio Pablo of Cagayan Valley set here five years back.

"Mas maganda pa sana ang performance ko kung nalaman ko lang ng maaga na may Palarong Pambansa pala," said Martinez, owner of the national juniors high jump record of 1.95.

Isagani Bayson of Western Visayas had 1.85 to settle for the silver medal while Edwin Lefanto of Eastern Visayas picked up the bronze with a distance of 1.80.

Martinez’s victory underscored Southern Tagalog’s emergence as the next athletics power after Marriz Cotoner bagged the gold in secondary girls’ high jump Tuesday also in another record-setting feat.

Palson Madsali of Western Mindanao topped the elementary discus throw with a heave of 34.79, more than a meter off the five-year-old mark of 33.34 set by Calixto Selsona here.

So dominating was the 12-year-old Madsali, a native of Sibuco, Zamboanga del Sur and a son of a fisherman, that his winning effort was several meters ahead of Alan Mindoro of Southern Tagalog (28,31) and Rey Dennis Bucay of Western Visayas (27.1), who settled for the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

The pair of record-breaking performances in athletics hiked the number of marks reset to five, three short of the eight records erased in the meet’s last staging in Bacolod City two years ago.

Not to be outdone were Leisel Labordo of Western Visayas and Hannah Erika Sia of the Ilocos Region, who ruled their respective events.

Labordo provided Western Visayas’ second gold medal with a victory in the elementary girls’ triple jump, registering 9.78 to beat teammate Jodgen Gaycon (9.62) and Southern Mindanao’s Novem Bayot (9.61).

Sia, on the other hand, drew inspiration from teammate Alleloid Lumabao’s superb performance in javelin two days back by bringing home the secondary girls’ shot put gold medal with a heave of 9.88. Lumabao, a protégé of former Gintong Alay project director Michael Keon, was the meet’s first gold medalist and record-breaker.

Abigail Panopio of Southern Tagalog came in second behind Sia with 9.79 while Charlene Naguan of Western Visayas took the bronze medal with 9.67.

At presstime, Southern Mindanao leads the field in the high school division with a total haul of six gold, three silver and one bronze medals, four golds ahead of National Capital Region.

Four of Southern Tagalog’s six gold medals came in swimming courtesy of Geeno Galac (100-m boys’ backstroke), Josephine Jamora (100-m girls’ backstroke), Ramon Borja (400-m-boys’ freestyle0 and Lianne Marice Marquez (400-m girls’ freestyle).

In other fronts, NCR swept the two golds staked in gymnastics, thanks to its artistics girls team and individual all around champion Ma. Grace Casandra Bernaldez, who led a 1-2-3 all-NCR finish in the same event.

NCR also had a pair of gold medals in the elementary division after its artistics girls’ team and individual all around winner Maria Virginia Acuna topped their turfs that completed a gymnastics sweep in Day 2.