Sprinter, bowler claim Para Games golds

KUALA LUMPUR – Cielo Honasan, a 15-year old polio victim, blitzed her way to the 200m dash gold for T44 yesterday to kick off her drive for a sprint treble in the ninth ASEAN Para Games at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium here yesterday.

Honasan lived up to hype as she dominated the field with a 28.51-second clocking, blowing past rivals Karisma Evi Tiarani of Indonesia and Nguyen Thu Thuy of Vietnam, who checked in at second and third with times of 31.12 and 33.07, respectively,

Honasan actually stamped her class right in the heats where she churned out a fast 28.55-second clocking, virtually reducing the finals to a battle for silver.

The Santiago, Botolan, Zambales native shoot for two more golds in the 100m dash today and the 400m run tomorrow.

“Competing here is already a dream come true and winning the gold made it more special,” said Honasan, who won the gold in the regular events of the Palaro regionals and eventually qualified in the Nationals in Antique.

“She (Honasan) reminded me of Lydia de Vega because at a very young age, she’s also as good,” said Honasan’s coach Joel Denada.

“Her time actually qualifies her in the Asian Para Games and the Paralympics,” said Denada.

Christopher Chiu Yue gave the Phl its third gold in tenpin bowling at the Bandar Sunway in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Yue rolled a 1239 as he fended off Malaysians Mohd Azrin Bin Rahim and Abu Bakat Bin Nyat, who scored 1216 and 1211 for silver and bronze, respectively.

Angelito Guloya, Rufo Tablang, Benjamin Ramos wound up with 1011, 990 and 940, which was good for seventh, eighth and 14th place, respectively.

The Phl also picked up two silver medals at the track courtesy of Jeanette Aceveda in shotput for F11 and F12 combined, and Arman Dino in the 400m for T47.

Dino’s silver actually glittered like gold as he beat Indonesian Marthin Losu and Thai Yamee Sutat, the gold and silver medalists in the 2015 Singapore staging of the biennial meet.

Dino clocked 52.77 while Sutat took the bronze in 53.38. Losu ended up fourth in 53.75.

Indonesian Nur Ferry Pradana snatched the gold in 50.49.

Claire Calizo, who snared a bronze in the 100m freestyle Monday, bagged a silver in swimming’s 200m freestyle for S14 with a time of 2:44.81 with Daielle Moi Yan Ting of Singapore taking the gold with a 2:29.89 clocking.

Singaporean Che Zi Ling bagged the bronze in 2:53.00.

Meanwhile, veteran Agustin Kitan lifted a 158 kg to win the bronze. Thai Narong Kasanun took the gold with 171 kg while Vietnamese Nguyen Thanh Xuan claimed the silver with 170 kg.