Abigail Viloria, Arianne Mae Trinidad rule Luzon elims

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 8:52 a.m., April 2) — Abigail Viloria and Arianne Mae Trinidad have trained their sights on the 2019 Go For Gold Skateboarding National Championships as their passport for the Southeast Asian Games.

Both reached the national finals set Aug. 24-25 in Sta. Rosa, Laguna after topping the women’s downhill and game of skate events during the Luzon qualifying leg recently.

Trinidad defeated Jennica Eunesse Gulapa and Gwen Cabangon in the game of skate at Robinson’s Place Novaliches. Viloria, from Cavite, was fastest in the women’s downhill race.

Airish Tenorio of Camarines Norte and Julieann Hilario of Batangas placed second and third behind Viloria, but they also booked a ticket to Sta. Rosa since the podium finishers are all qualified for the national championships.

``I believe skateboarding is a great sport to encourage our youth. It’s not so expensive and can be done almost anywhere,’’ said Go For Gold godfather Jeremy Go.

“We hope that our athletes can serve as role models to keep Filipino kids in sports and out of trouble,’’ added Go, also the vice president for marketing of Powerball Marketing and Logistics Corp., the company behind the Go For Gold program.

The national finals of the 2019 Go For Gold Skateboarding Championships also serve as the national qualifier for the SEA Games in December.

In the men’s division, Charles Louise “CL’’ Paje ruled the game of skate after eliminating the equally talented and fearless Christian Louie Enconado and Mark Garcia.

Tomas Romualdez of Laguna was dauntless in the men’s downhill held in Taysan, Batangas to subdue fellow Laguna skater Sebastian Chanco and Duke Pandeagua of Camarines Norte.

According to skateboarding chief Monty Mendigoria, the Visayas leg will be held April 6-7 in Cebu City, home city of Asian Games gold medalist Margielyn Didal.

Mendigoria, president of the Skateboarding and Roller Sports Association of the Philippines, said the regionals travel south to GenSan on May 25-26.

Editor's note: The cover photo of this article has been removed due to questions on copyright