Cebuana gymnasts shine on the international stage

CEBU, Philippines —  A bunch of young but promising Cebuana gymnasts led by Daniela Reggie “Dadai” De la Pisa and Leanne Marie Manning made their country proud by coming up with golden performances in two separate international online tournaments recently.

The 17-year-old De la Pisa pocketed two gold medals in the 2020 Santa’s Cup staged last December 5 in Budapest, Hungary where she is now based under the guidance of  her Hungarian coach Dora Vass.

De la Pisa, who inspired many with her success story as a cancer survivor to a champion gymnast, dished out a golden double in the hoop and clubs events.

Before the Santa’s Cup, De la Pisa bagged the individual all-around title in the seniors division of the Magic Cup Rhythmic Gymnastics Meet also in Hungary.

Just days before the sports lockdown in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic, De La Pisa  hauled four gold and three bronze medals at the 2020 TavazsiKupa in Budapest.

“It’s almost a year that I have not competed because of the pandemic,” said De la Pisa, who is in town for a well deserved vacation. “I’m just happy that I still pulled it off despite performing new routines during the Santa’s Cup.”

“My next plan is to prepare myself for the next SEA Games and other competitions in Europe,” added De la Pisa, who minted gold medal for Team Philippines in hoop event of the women’s rhythmic gymnastics at the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games hosted by the country a year ago. She also had two bronzes in ball and clubs.

It was actually a double celebration for Dadai as her mother/coach Darlene Castañeda De la Pisa, herself a champion gymnast during her prime, steered the LaSugbo Rhythmic Gymnastics-Cebu City Team to the overall championship of the 1st Majestic Gymnastics International Online Competition last December 12-13.

LaSugbo-Cebu City finished the two-day tilt with the best haul of 24 medals sliced into 12 golds, 10 silvers, and two bronzes.

The 12-year-old Manning led LaSugbo’s charge with five golds in the ribbon, rope, ball, clubs, and individual all-around events in the juniors division.

“My recent win was a very pleasant surprise. Due to Covid-19, I have been forced to train online at home with coach Darlene. We haven’t trained in a proper gym for a long time and we were only able to train at a basketball court in November to prepare for this competition. This only gave us two weeks to master and try to perfect our routines.”

“I am also incredibly pleased and honored to receive the MVP award. It’s very special as there were a few very good gymnasts in this competition,” Manning added. “I would also like to congratulate the rest of my teammates from the Cebu City-RG Team who all performed exceptionally well, to win their individual medals and also together, to win the Best Team award. Special thanks to our team coach Darlene De la Ppisa for pushing us to reach our full potential.”

The other gold medalists for LaSugbo-Cebu City were Dominique Labides (ball) and Colynn Aguilar (rope and IAA) in the Develop-mental RG, Noem Guades (ball and IAA) in Pre-junior, and Adriana Caudor and Lindsey Lubang in the beam event of WAG (Women Artistic Gymnatics).

This early, LaSugbo’s spirited gymnasts got an added motivation to strive even harder and reap more honors in the future as Cebu City Sports Commission (CSCC) Vice Chairman Lorenzo “Chao” Sy pledged to put up a training facility for them sometime in the first quarter of 2021.

“That is my commitment to them,” said Chao Sy before jetting in for Los Angeles last week to spend the holidays with his family. “Given their potentials, they deserve their 0own training center, something they can call home. And I’m willing to provide them that next year.”

Chao Sy’s pronouncement came as a timely Christmas present for LaSugbo RG coach Darlene. “It’s a huge Christmas gift for our team because we finally have a training area,” she said.