Silay teener Palaro Golden Girl

BACOLOD - Kerschtine Velez, pushed to greater heights by her stint in the Pan-Pacific Games recently, emerged as the Golden Girl of the pools by bagging three more gold medals in the Palarong Pambansa at the Panaad Park and Sports Complex here yesterday.

The 13-year-old swimmer from Silay City ruled the girls elementary 200m individual medley in 2:40.18, shattering the old mark of 2:41.48 by Luica Dacanay in the 1998 Centennial Palaro here. She now had six golds.

She annexed the 50m freestyle gold with a time of 29.63 seconds and capped a three-gold medal haul by anchoring the Western Visayas team to the team gold in the relays with a cumulative clocking of 2:02.92, slicing nearly two seconds off the old mark of 2:05.06.

"It's very exciting," said Velez, who almost cut short a swimming career when her mother advised against her training because the swimming venue in Bacolod was too far from home.

"There was also one time when I thought I should give up because I was not making an improvement. But when I competed in the Pan Pacific Games in Australia against the best from the host and other countries, I had realized I had the potential," added Velez, who did not win a medal in the Sydney Games.

The collection of six golds surpassed the five-gold medal output of incoming San Beda High School freshman Ronald Alejo Guiriba, who won the 50m freestyle for elementary boys in 26.64 seconds, erasing the old mark of 28 seconds set by Matthew Vincent Vega in the 1997 Palaro.

Velez will try to make it a seven-gold sweep when she participates in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Guiriba will also gun for his sixth and seventh gold medals when he competes in the 50m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle relay at the close of the swimming competitions today.

The National Capital Region, which has fielded the best talents in the medal-rich events in athletics and swimming, is virtually beyond reach with 14 golds, seven silvers and eight bronzes. Slugging it out for second are Southern Tagalog (9-6-9) and Western Visayas (8-3-5).

NCR pulled away in the secondary division with a tally of 18-7-6, beating Central Visayas (8-11-4) and Western Visayas (5-10-3).

Overall, NCR had a combined tally of 32-14-14, more than the double gold output of its closest pursuers Western Visayas (13-13-8) and Southern Tagalog (13-9-12). Typifying NCR's dominance was table tennis where it took four golds in sweeping the boys' and girls' elementary and high school individual events Wednesday.