Central Visayas bags three golds in Palaro

PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan – The Central Visayas athletes struck three golds in Day 2 of the 2008 Palarong Pambansa even as they continued to pounce on in ball games in different venues here.

The region’s first gold came from arnis behind the efforts of Joshua Paracuelles of the University of Cebu (UC). He showed impressive performance to top the individual identical doubles weapon with 90.6 points.

Over at the Ramon V. Mitra Jr. Sports Complex, another UC athlete, Irin Baluran, handed Region 7’s second gilt by dominating the women’s triple jump. He leaped to a distance of 11.78 meters, breaking her personal best record of 11.08m she logged in last year’s Palaro.

Over at the swimming pool, Loren Dale Echavez delivered another gold for Central Visayas via the secondary girls 400m freestyle event. She clocked in four minutes and 48.2 seconds.

Central Visayas is also assured of at least four silvers as Niño Siso, Israel Abarquez, Larry Antigua and Francis Largo advanced into the final round of the secondary boys lawn tennis event.

The Ticag brothers, on the other hand, hurdled their first assignments with ease in boxing competition. Celestino Ticag won by Referee-Stop-Contest in round two, while Ruben forced his foe into submission in round three.

Central Visayas also dumped Zamboanga Peninsula in sepak takraw, but its boys volleyball squad lost to the Zamboangeño 18-25, 25-19, 27-25.

In the elementary level, Region VII drubbed CRAA in basketball, 65-33, whipped Region V in baseball, 10-4, and smothered CARAGA, 21-12, 21-14 in sipa.