De Ramos completes sprint double

MANILA, Philippines - San Sebastian’s Rolando de Ramos Jr. outsprinted Isidro del Prado Jr. of St. Benilde for the second time as he ruled the 200-meter dash to complete a sprint double in the 85th NCAA athletics competition at the Rizal Memorial Track and Field Oval yesterday.

De Ramos, who earlier topped the century dash over Del Prado, clocked 22.33 seconds to beat Letran’s Archand Bagsit and del Prado, who checked in at 22.42 and 22.43 for the gold medal.

Del Prado, son of former track and field star Isidro del Prado, Sr., meanwhile, made up for those twin setbacks as he pocketed the 400m run gold Wednesday in record-breaking fashion.

Ramos’ victory, along with those of Mervin Guarte’s, kept the Stags in the overall lead with 466 points with a number of events still to be completed at presstime.

Guarte ruled the 1,500m, 3,000m steeplechase and 800m also in record-breaking runs.

“I’m just happy I’m performing well in my first year in the NCAA,” said the 17-year-old pride of Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, also a double gold medalist in last year’s Palarong Pambansa in Tacloban, Leyte.

The Knights currently trail the Stags with 402.3 while the Mapua Cardinals, last year’s champions, have 384.8 points for third.

In juniors division, Letran’s Glenn Khobuntins snared three gold medals as he topped the high jump, discus throw and shot put events.

“My target is to really improve on my two gold medals last year,” said the 6-4 Khobuntins, also a vital cog in Letran’s junior basketball team. – Joey Villar