Swim golds icing on cake for NCR bets

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Tankers Miguel Barreto and Xiandi Chua splashed their way to a combined five gold medals in swimming’s final day, including three record-breakers, to help National Capital Region virtually clinch the secondary overall title for the 15th straight year in the Palarong Pambansa at the UP Sports Complex Aquatics Center here yesterday.

Barreto, 15, copped the 200-meter freestyle gold in a minute and 56.07 seconds to eclipse the two-year-old mark set by NCR’s Maurice Sacho Illustre in San Jose, Antique. Then he teamed up with Philip Joaquin Santos, Steven Ho and Ted Jacob Laminta in ruling the 400m freestyle relay in 3:42.93 to emerge the most bemedalled athlete here with seven golds.

The 17-year-old Chua, for her part, made the most of her final year in this annual meet as she harvested a total of six mints, including the 200m, 400m individual medley and the 400m freestyle relay with Hannah Sanchez, Althea Michel Baluyot and Camille Lauren Buico.

Overall, Chua smashed five records, including the 200m free where she erased the two-year standard of 2:10.14 registered by NCR’s Nicole Meah Pamintuan two years back in Antique by clocking 2:09.05, and the 400m free relay squad in 4:05.19 to surpass the 4:10.18 set by Calabarzon in San Jose, Tarlac nine years ago.

Barreto’s seven mints, Chua’s six and Philip Joaquin Santos’ six were enough to propel the Big City bets to their 15th straight secondary overall crown even though there is still a day to go before the competition ends.

At the end of the day, NCR has hauled 58 golds, 40 silvers and 29 bronzes, way ahead of closest pursuers Western Visayas (30-19-25) and Calabarzon (27-25-44).

While NCR’s high school crown is in the bag, the elementary title isn’t as it is currently in second with a 17-25-17 harvest behind Calabarzon’s 24-17-23.

Over at University of Mindanao track oval, Lheslie de Lima of Bicol snared the secondary girls’ 800m mint in 2:18.13 to complete the sweep of the middle-distance events after she reigned supreme in the 3,000m and 1,500m.

Calabarzon’s Alrayan Labita, Jan Rey Gallano, Jason Jabol, Anthony Bacle Jr. topped the secondary boys’ 4x400m relay in 3:21.66 while eclipsing the five-year-old record of 3:22.01.

The NCR team of Veruel Verdadero, John Paul Pagatpat, Gabriel Dulay and Reymart Molave also surpassed the old mark by registering 3:21.84 but wound up with just a silver.

It was a sorry ending for Verdadero, formerly representing Calabarzon, as he wound up without a gold after capturing a combined nine in the last two editions.