Little mermaid rules freestyle in record time

DAVAO CITY, Philippines  —   Western Visayas tanker Alexi Cabayaran splashed her way to the gold in record-breaking fashion even as Cagayan Valley’s Algin Gomez leapt to his second mint, this time in triple jump, in the Palarong Pambansa here yesterday.

Unheralded Vince Jayson Buhayin, another Western Visayas bet, emerged as the Games’ new fastest man, ending the two-year reign of Veruel Verdadero of Calarbazon in the century dash. Buhayin clocked 10.62 seconds against Verdadero’s 10.81 at the University of Mindanao track oval.

Over at the University of the Philippines Sports Complex Aquatics Center, Cabayaran, 11, clocked 2:15.76 to bag the gold and improve the elementary girls’ 200-meter freestyle record of 2:16.72 set by the Big City’s Imee Joyce Saavedra in Sta. Cruz, Laguna five years ago.

She later bagged her second gold in the 100m backstroke in 1:10.04, and came close to eclipsing the 13-year-old mark of 1:09.65 owned by NCR’s Dorothy Grace Hong.

Gomez, 18, needed a late push to snatch the gold from youthful rival John Mike Lera of Northern Mindanao, registering 14.62m on his sixth and final jump to emerge the first double-gold winner in centerpiece athletics. He won the long jump gold last Monday.

Lera ended up with his second silver with a 14.60m.

Cabayaran, an incoming Grade 7 student at Mambulak, wasn’t surprised with her feat.

“I expected it because I trained hard and didn’t give up on my preparation,” said Cabayaran, who harvested six gold medals in the Batang Pinoy Visayas Leg in Iloilo City last February.