SOCSKSARGEN - Two girls barely in their teens rose from the ranks of the mediocre as they snatched four gold medals each to emerge the most-decorated athletes yesterday of the first Palaro ng Bayan.
Gymnast Jesusa Paguio gave Bataan something to crow about when she and her team left for home yesterday morning after ruling the four events in rhythmic gymnastics, while Rizze Dadal of Negros Occidental added a fourth as a member of her relay team to bolster her province's frontrunning position in the overall standings.
These and the third gold medal feats of breaststroker Rizza Majayjay and Sharon Marque in swimming were the only outstanding achievements from among 7,000 athletes whose performance is still far below that of the Palarong Pambansa and the now-defunct National Games.
Paguio, 10, won the gold in the individual all around (36.19), the ball event (11.80), hoop (12.13) and ribbon event, all held at the Sarangani province.
Dadal, who earlier won three individual events -- the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke -- anchored her Negros Occidental team to a first place finish in the 4x50m medley relay.
Majayjay, 15-year-old sophomore from Camarines Sur, annexed her third breaststroke gold medal by winning the 200m in 2:587.22. Earlier she won the 100m (1:24.07) and the 50m (37.78).
Marque, also from Negros Occidental, won the girls 200m freestyle in 2:37.68 to equal Dadal's three-gold medal feat.
In another mighty performance, Negros annexed four more of the eight gold medals at stake in swimming to capture the women's overall title in the provincial-municipal competitions.
The other gold medal winners from Negros were Dax Donguines (50m freestyle, 37:43), Remia Francisco (200m freestyle, 2:35.17) and the 4x50m medley relay team (2:25.23).
For the nth time, organizers failed to give updates of the competitions from the venues in Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat, and Koronadal, South Cotabato and even the main venue at the Acharon Sports and Development Center here. Results of overall team standings were not available.
In softball games held at Sarangani, Bacolod defeated Cotabato, 16-1, and won the gold medal in the provincial division. In the Highly Urbanized Cities category, Misamis Oriental advanced to today's gold medal round against Nueva Ecija.
Also at the same venue, Basilan meets Camarines Sur today for the title in Little League baseball. -