Pagnanawon, Manapul shine

Paulo Manapul outraced three others in the homestretch as he topped the elite category of the cycling event yesterday in the first Batang Quezon City Palarong Panglungsod at the Amoranto Sports Complex.

Manapul stucked with Dante Cagas, Arthus Bucay and David Perez before breaking loose in the final 100 meteRs with a time of 1:56:08.35 to take home the gold in the 48.5 km. road race which started at the Quezon City Memorial Circle.

Former Marlboro Tour champion Rolando Pagnanawon defeated Ysmael Gendrano by a millisecond with a time of 2:01:54.76 to rule the master’s category A. Gendrano settled for the silver medal while Besre Cascabel took the bronze in 2:03:47.52.

In the master’s category B, Gerry Ganglon timed 2:05:47.94, beating Jose Delos Santos (2:10:52.52) and Pedro Rodriguez (2:12:07.76).

Romeo Guevarra, on the other hand, conquered the Juniors section of this meet organized by Quezon City Mayor Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte, Jr.

Guevarra registered a time of 1:56:08.35, besting Stephen Romaquin’s 2:01:54.67 and Ferdinand Pablo’s 2:01:54.69 for the gold medal.

Meanwhile, action in karatedo slowed down a little bit with a total of 42 gold, 42 silver and 70 bronze medals still up fo grabs late yesterday in the kumite event.

Batasan, which dominated Saturday’s kata event by hauling six of the 11 gold medals contested, is currently leading the way as it sent almost half of its team into the medal round.

Athletics, which held an initial briefing Saturday, reels off today at the Amoranto track and field with three gold medals at stake while swimming, one of the medal-rich disciplines, ended yesterday.