Frigillana, Pilapil lead NCR tankers romp

NAGA CITY, Philippines – Ferdinand Frigillana matched his seven-gold haul last year with victories in the 400-m free and 4x100-m medley relay as he emerged the most outstanding athlete in the PRISAA National Games at the Metro Naga Sports Complex here yesterday.

Frigillana clocked 4:36.98 in the 400-m free then powered the NCR quartet of Teohdy Gavino, John Orlan Simora and Neale Banagale to the gold medal in the 4x100-m medley relay in 2:27.29, erasing the year-old mark of 4:18.09

Another NCR swimmer, UST’s Josephine Pilapil, a former Palaro standout, wound up as the best in the distaff side with six golds and one silver after adding the women’s 50-meter breastroke (38.56) and 400-meter individual medley (2:49.98).

Other NCR winners were McGyver Reyes in the men’s 50-m fly (27.09), Edson Dinglasan in the men’s 50-m breast (32.01), John Bueta in the men’s 200-m IM (2:22.79) and the squad of Banagale, Jericho Escobar, Bueta and Adrian Rees in the 4x200 freestyle relay (9:01.94).

Only four of the eight events at the close of the swimming contests slipped from NCR’s grasp with Region 6’s Chrizel topping the women’s 400-m free (5:28.78), Region 7’s Zoe Menguito in the 50-m free (32.55), Region 7 in the women’s 4x50-m medley relay (5:23.06) and Region 6 in the women’s 4x200-m freestyle relay (10:41.45).

Together with their haul Thursday, the Big City bets were the undisputed overall swimming champions with 51 gold, 21 silver and 10 bronze medals, with relay events giving out four medals each under PRISAA rules.

Western Visayas (11-7-17) was a far second while Calabarzon third (2-25-8).

On the other hand, the swimming bonanza enabled NCR to pad its front-running overall gold-silver-bronze tally to 50-26-21 as of noontime Thursday, with Western Visayas retaining second (16-20-21) and Central Visayas in third place (16-20-61).

NCR’s Benjamin Alejandrino also stamped his class in athletics, picking up two golds yesterday in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:48.2) and 4x800-meter relay, to likewise go a perfect 4-for-4 in his events.

The 22-year-old UST education sophomore earlier pocketed the 200-m and 1,500-meter golds.

Also winning in track and field were NCR’s Benigno Marayag in the men’s triple jump (14.92), his second gold after topping the long jump; Region 6’s Jean Delfin in the women’s 3,000 meters (10:55.45), Region 1’s Rochelle Corpus in the women’s triple jump (11.92), while NCR both swept the 4x400-meter men’s and women’s relays.

The taekwondo championships finished Wednesday night with the Western Visayas jin dominating the event with three gold, five silver and two bronze medals. Davao (Region 11) wound up second with a 2-1-4 slate while Calabarzon (Region 4-A) took third with a 2-1-1 card.

Western Visayas swept the men’s and women’s team championships at the close of chess competitions Thursday.

In the battle for men’s chess individual honors, Region 7’s Kim Yap topped Board 1, Region 6’s Michael Paragan on Board 2, Region 6’s Mark Mariano on Board 3 and teammate Richfield Rivera on Board 4.

Region 9’s Ma. Fe Serrano was the best on Board 1 on the distaff side and Region 6’s Stella Mar Guadiano, Joyce Marie Mariano and Ma. Jennifer Nacion on Boards 2, 3 and 4, respectively.