Niños pull away

TAGBILARAN CITY - As the competition heats up, so is the defending champion Cebu City Niños as they collected a total of 66 golds, 52 silvers and 45 bronzes after the second day of competition in the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) Meet at the Carlos P. Garcia Sports Complex here.

The Cebu City Niños, thus, zoomed ahead in both the elementary and secondary divisions in an unofficial medal count with the organizing Department of Education-VII now utilizing the 'points system'.

Host Bohol Province is a far second with only 14 golds, 12 silvers and 26 bronzes.

Dumaguete City ended the day at third place with 13-28-13 g-s-b tally, Cebu Province at fourth with 11-8-20 medal count and Oriental Negros at fifth with 7-4-7.

The tally also had Tagbilaran with 6-10-11 and Mandaue with 5-6-9, Talisay with 3-5-7, Danao City with 3-5-6, Bayawan with 2-2-2, Bais with a gold and a bronze and Siquijor with a silver and a bronze.

In the secondary level, the Niños collected a total of 35 golds, 33 silvers and 25 bronzes. Swimming was accounted for 13 golds, athletics nine, gymnastics eight, and taekwondo five.

Palarong Pambansa elementary long jump record-holder, Iren Baluran, who is now with Cebu City got the gold in her favorite event with a 4.35m best. Sheena Gacayan and Stephanie Sanico, on the other hand, bagged two golds each via the 1,500 and 3,000m run and shotput and discus throw, respectively.

A gold each also came from Almira Gay Sadaya in the 100m hurdles, Annabelle Nunez in the 800m hurdles, and Jasper Basister in boys discus throw competition with a 28.23m mark.

The Cebu City Niños sealed their bid in swimming with nine more golds to dominate the action with a total of 13 golds. Dumaguete ended up second with seven golds.

The Niños also swept all golds at stake in the women's artistic gymnastics, with Welan Bacalla leading the charge anchored on her triple gold medal in floor exercises, beam and all-around. The other gold went to Naomi Soco.

The Niños also took a commanding lead in elementary division with 31-19-20 gold-silver-bronze haul. The younger Niños dug up their golds in swimming with 10, athletics with eight, and taekwondo with five.

The Niños prevented Bohol from taking full command in the boys' division of athletics, thanks to Don Lorenz Bantilo for winning the 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles. Bantilo clocked in 20.24 seconds in the 110m hurdles and 1:12.87 in the 400m hurdles.

In the distaff side, five Niños won one gold each in Jee Ann Racoma in the 200m run, Arielle Famador in the 800m run, Edziel Ballaran in the 100m hurdles and Leslie Mae Abad in discus throw.

Cebu City also collected a total of five golds, two silvers and two bronzes in the elementary division, while its secondary bets also had the same gold and silver haul on top of four bronzes to rule the taekwondo event, which came to a close late Tuesday night at the Holy Name University-Dampas Campus.

Contributing the golds in the elementary level were Kalyka Carcel in the girls 48-51 inches class, Elizabeth Gapas in the 54-57 class, Sarah Mary Valencia in the 60-63 category, John Paul Tomarsi in the boys 51-54 bracket and Cris Daryl Yap in the 60-63 category.

Handing over golds in the secondary level were finweight Richard Caingles, bantamweight Mark Bas, featherweight Wayne Sagayno, flyweight Julie Eve Dublin and weilterweight Magdalena Talealino.