Archer brightens CVIRAA’s day

STA. CRUZ, LAGUNA, Philippines - — Despite sliding down to fifth spot, Cebuano archer Vincent Villa gave Central Visayas something to cheer about after becoming the region's first double gold medallist in the 57th Palarong Pambansa yesterday here at the Laguna Sports Complex.

Villa, who earlier topped the 30-meter event, made it a double victory by winning the 50m distance with a total of 324 points. It was actually a 1-2 finish for CVIRAA as Junmar Junas settled for second place with 320 points. Villa is a proud student of Maria Montesorri International School, while Junas studies at Gothong High School.

Despite Villa’s effort, CVIRAA slipped to fifth place overall with nine golds, 10 silvers and seven bronzes after the fourth day of action in the week-long sports conclave considered as the Olympics of the country’s elementary and secondary athletes.

Powerhouse National Capital Region  stayed atop the leaderboard with 32 golds, 15 silvers and 18 bronzes followed by host Calambarzon with a 16-17-16 gold-silver-bronze medal tally. Western Visayas is at third with 12-9-14 followed by CARAA with 10-8-8.

Over in Los Baños, gymnast Eunice Ginell Soronio of the University of the Visayas lorded it over in the elementary balance beam, becoming the first official gold medallist of CVIRAA in gymnastics.

CVIRAA also got two bronzes courtesy of Randall Iverson de la Pisa and Justin Mori Serrano in the vault in the elementary and secondary level.

Pearl Angelene Abellar of Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu finally broke the jinx that beset CVIRAA in athletics after winning the bronze in elementary girls 100m run with a time of 13.4 seconds. Her bronze finish was made even sweeter as she barely crossed the finish line ahead of three other runners. She was just a tick of a second away from the next runner.

This is Abellar's second Palaro, but her first time to win medal.

"When I crossed the finish line, I thought someone or somebody said that it's okay not to win a medal as long as I finish the race, which I agree. Medals are just bonus. I’m just happy that I did my best against strong opponents," said Abellar.

Later in the day, Archel Marikit  salvaged a bronze in secondary high jump on his 17th birthday. He logged 1.85m on his first attempt.

CVIRAA's bets in secondary girls tennis led by Jana Pages, Jed Valie Rayne Aquino, Rosvel Anne Binondo and Dawn Albert Uy improved their male counterparts medal finish after settling with a silver in their late Tuesday night final match against Davao region.

In elementary girls taekwondo, CVIRAA also  grabbed a silver in team poomsae, while the region’s table netters contributed a silver so far from the elementary boys team tie.

On the other hand, swimmer Martin Jose Sayson snatched a silver in the 50-meter breast stroke with a 35.88sec clocking.

Meanwhile, the golden performance of Cebuana Daniela de la Pisa in rhythmic gymnastics is not officially counted for the medal standings.

It would have been a great help for CVIRAA since the multi-sport event organized by DepEd and hosted by the province of Laguna under Governor Jeorge "E.R" Estregan is now using an Olympic medal count.

The National Milo Little Olympics Most Outstanding Athlete in gymnastics won four golds through the ribbon, clubs, freehand and overall plus a silver in the ball. However, she is under cluster 1, which is for gymnasts aged 7 to 9. In this year's Palaro, the said cluster is only a demonstration sport, and will be formally added to the medal matrix in the next Palaro yet.

De la Pisa's medals, according to her mom and coach Darlene, would have been counted if she got higher scores than those in cluster 2. (FREEMAN)