Davao City—Nine-year-old gymnast Gail Santos joined 12-year-old swimmer Alexie Cabayaran in scooping up four gold medals each as a total of 29 meet records fell in the 2019 Palarong Pambansa here on Thursday.
Santos, an incoming fourth-grade student at the Patubig Elementary School in Marilao, Bulacan, delivered the goods for Region 3 in the cluster one of the elementary section of the women’s artistic gymnastics’ event at the University of Immaculate Conception.
Tallying four golds and two silver medals, Santos took the top honors in the vault exercises, the balance beam and the floor exercises, before settling for the silver in the uneven bars.
Her scores totalled 75.80 points, allowing her to outpoint National Capital Region’s Cielo Esliza and Lara Concepcion for a fourth gold medal in the individual all-around.
Santos’ efforts, however, were not enough to dislodge defending champion NCR from the team championship as she and teammates earned a second silver.
“I draw inspiration for my win from my ate,” said Santos, whose elder sister Eloisa Joyce was not that successful in the secondary level.
Cabayaran produced four golds and a bronze medal, after she smashed the secondary girls’ 100-meter freestyle mark on Day 2, ruled the 100-meter butterfly and helped helped Western Visayas earn the 4×100 freestyle mint on Day 4 of the swim meet at the University of the Philippines-Davao Aquatics Center.
Western Visayas Region also settled for a bronze medal in the 4×100-meter medley relays with Cabayaran, who went into swimming to deal with her asthma. The 6th grader from Mambulac Elementary School in Silay City, deleted a four-year old mark set by Jules Ong (1:02.68) with a time of 1:02.25, as she outclassed Central Luzon bets Triza Tabamo and Trixie Ortiguerra.
So far, the NCR is ahead on the overall medal standings with 53 golds, 43 silvers and 28 bronze medals.
Region IV-A (Southern Tagalog Region) is in tight race for second place with its 37-27-52 gold-silver-bronze, with Western Visayas in close third (36-19-30).
In athletics, another Western Visayas bet in Alfrence Braza, led five others in setting a new meet mark in the secondary boys’ 1,500-meter run, after erasing Northern Mindanao runner Kevin Campampangan’s five-year-old clocking of 4:05.8 in 4:01.95.
NCR’s Reymart Molave, Region IV-A’s Anthony Bacle Jr. and Region IV-A’s Erwin Mancao also submitted clockings to finish second, third, fourth and fifth, and in record-breaking fashion as well.
Region IV-A’s Gennah Malapit and Nicole Atordido(Western Visayas) wound up first and second, respectively, in the elementary girls’ javelin throw with heaves of 46.57 and 43.43.27.
Both surpassed Avegail Biliran’s (Western Visayas) 41.16-meter feat.
Meanwhile, Jasmine Micaela Mojdeh, who has two golds and two silvers, was with NCR teammates Hannah Sanchez, Sam Doragos and Gianna Garcia in the 4×50-meter relay when they won over Western Visayas and Northern Mindanao in 1:55.93, resetting the two-year-old 1:54.13 record which NCR also set.
Camille Buico of NCR beat her teammate Mojdeh for the second time, setting a new record in secondary girls’ 100-meter butterfly in 1:03.67 and eclipsing Regina Castrillo’s 1:04.41 back in 2015.
Ateneo standout Philip Santos of NCR made another mark with his 2:08.16 clocking in the secondary boys’ 200-meter backstroke, shattering Jerald Jacinto’s 2:09.17, established in 2017.
In archery, three course records were set, with Nicole Manalac’s score of 331 in the 40-meters, five ahead of Phoebe Amistoso’s 326 last year.
Jason Feliciano had a 322 in the secondary boys’ 70-meters, while Region 1’s Jason Feliciano (Region XI) hit a 1277 total in the single fita.