Alamara bros lift RP to 7th

DARWIN, N.T. Australia – Brothers Norton and Ali Alamara scored one gold and two silver medals in the pool Monday as the Philippines jumped from 11th to seventh position among the international cast in the third day of Arafura Games here.

A 1-2 finish by the Alamara siblings in the 100-m breaststroke for boys 17-and-above anchored the Philippines’ romp with the 22-year-old Norton prevailing after narrowly missing the gold in the 200-m race of the event earlier won by Chris Bagley of the host Northern Territory.

Norton, who settled for bronze in the same event two years ago, clocked 1 minute, 11.13 seconds for winning the gold, the Philippines’ second following judoka Paolo Tancontian’s victory in the under-81 kg class.

The Davao City tanker slashed two seconds from his personal best although his winning time was way below the Arafura standard of 1:09.71 set by Ben Labowitch, also of Northern Territory.

The Philippines now has 2 golds and 2 silvers with the Filipinos eyeing another victory Wednesday as the Cebu tennis squad guns for the gold in the boys division. The girls team vies for the bronze medal.

Northern Territory leads the medal race with 56 golds, 59 silvers and 48 bronze. Malaysia is on top among the international cast with 5-5-5 tally, followed by New Zealand (5-4-2), New Caladonia (4-1-0), Papua New Guinea (2-3-1) Thailand (2-2-1) and China (2-0-3).

Meanwhile, three of four RP boxers advanced to the next round at the Gardens Oval football field with fancied Deck Varrou scoring a first round RSC-H (headblows) victory over David Touika of Papua New Guineas in the bantamweight division.

Lightweight Rico Laput of RP-Davao City outpointed compatriot Zander Flores of RP-Cebu, while Jessar Ancajas survived a shaky start and a point deduction due to low blows before scoring a fourth round RSC-O (outclassed) win over Alguedo Jari Setouki of the Papua Province of Indonesia. Featherweight Franklin Albia and flyweight Welbert Eballes debut Tuesday night.

In lawn tennis, three RP netters made it to the quarterfinal round with Andrew Adaza and Alexis Lapaz of RP-Davao Oriental and James Dumoran of RP-Cebu fashioning out wins in the boys singles.

Adaza ousted local boy Nick Munro, 6-3, 7-5, Lapaz survived Ivan de Carvalho of East Timor, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, and Dumoran beat Timorese top player Antonio Mendes, 6-4, 7-5.