Udtohan, Illustre power NCR pullaway

STA. CRUZ, Laguna, Philippines - – Jomar Udtohan spearheaded the National Capital Region’s 4x100-meter and 4x400m teams to a pair of record-breaking feats and Maurice Sacho Illustre copped two more swimming gold medals to emerge the most bemedalled athlete with seven to underscore NCR’s continued domination of the Palarong Pambansa here yesterday.

Udtohan and Illustre served as anchors of the Big City juggernaut with the former hauling five golds in centerpiece athletics, including a rare treble, and the latter topping the 200m freestyle and skippering their 400m free relay to the gold medal.

Illustre earlier triumphed in 400m and 800m free, 100m and 200m butterfly and 400m medley relay.

Ilocos’ Mary Queen Ybanez took the individual Olympic round gold to cap her spectacular performance in archery with six golds, a silver and a bronze.

With the overall championship already in the bag midway through the week-long meet, NCR raked in more medals, thanks to five-gold haul in swimming, including two by Illustre and the two relay golds that Udtohan helped win to hike NCR’s secondary total to 41 gold, 20 silver and 21 bronze medals heading to the final day of competitions.

NCR’s elementary team, meanwhile, has a 41-26-17 take, rendering today’s ballgames mere coronation for the Big City bets.

It was also Udtohan’s sixth record-breaker in five events, hiking the total number of new feats to 23, including 12 in the pool and the rest at the track oval.

In ballgames, the defending champions in most fronts have been booted out, including in secondary boys basketball where Central Visayas fell to NCR, 90-80, in a semifinal duel that was a re-match of last year’s gold medal duel.

The Big City cagers, composed of players from Xavier, Mapua, National U and University of Santo Tomas, will face Calabarzon, represented by reigning NCAA high school titlist San Beda which turned back Western Visayas, 81-74, in the other semis encounter.

NCR will be seeking to regain the title it last won two years back in Lingayen, Pangasinan while Calabarzon aims to snare its first gold since it went all the way three years ago in San Jose, Tarlac.

“It’s a dogfight,” said NCR coach Jeff Napa, the UAAP champion mentor of NU.

Hope Christian School of NCR, champion in secondary volleyball for two straight years, was eliminated by Western Visayas, 25-21, 25-19, in their heated semis showdown.

Davao edged Central Luzon, 25-23, 17-25, 25-19, to clinch the other finals spot.

Western Visayas’ title-retention bid in baseball likewise came to a screeching halt after it was eliminated by Mimaropa, 4-2.

Last year’s gold medal winners Mimaropa of football, NCR in secondary girls basketball,  Calabarzon in secondary boys volleyball and Western Visayas in secondary girls softball all survived the gruelling group stages and made it to the gold medal round.

Palaro notes: Bong dela Cruz is here to scout for potential talents a couple of months after he assumed the headcoaching job at UST’s men’s basketball team. During the NCR-Central Visayas semis duel, he was met by seven-footer Ej Feihl, a former Adamson teammate in the UAAP who is working with host Laguna’s athletics program now...Speaking of the Falcons, their new coach Kenneth Duremdes is also expected to scout for talents. He will come with one of his assistants 6-9 Marlou Aquino, who happens to be another ex-teammate of Dela Cruz and Feihl...With no one to enforce it, the move of the Department of Edcuation requiring mediamen to seek clearance before doing interviews has turned inutile as media people, pressed by deadlines, went on with their jobs and just completely ignored the laughable protocol, the first of its kind in the 57-year history of the games...Already eliminated, a fourth of 11,000 athletes have rushed to the stalls surrounding the area to buy souvenirs and just enjoyed the festive-like atmosphere here brought not just by the meet but also the province’s “La Laguna” festival, a grand showcase of famous products of all cities and towns of this Southern Tagalog province.