NCR overall Palaro champ

DAPITAN CITY, Philippines  – National Capital Region (NCR) rose above everybody else as the Big City bets racked up their sixth straight general championship in the 2011 Palarong Pambansa that ended yesterday at the Jose Rizal Memorial State University Sports Complex here.

After six days of action, perennial champion NCR accumulated a grand total of 572.7 points to run away with the overall crown over Western Visayas (479.5) and Calabarzon (430.5)

“We worked very hard for this year because we know other regions are working very hard, too,” said DepEd NCR OIC and delegation head Ellen Ruiz.

The Metro Manilans struck hard in basketball, softball, boys’ volleyball, gymnastics and swimming en route to topping the elementary division with 285 points on the Palaro scoring system, where an individual gold medal is worth seven points and a team title is equivalent to 25.

WV, which showed its might in athletics and badminton, settled for runner-up honors in elementary with 239.5 while Calabarzon, which made a killing in swimming, wound up third with 181.

Anchored on its tankers, baseball team, badminton players, and taekwondo players, the NCR delegation likewise pulled through with the secondary division diadem, garnering 287.2 points.

Finishing a close second was Calabarzon (249.5), which made waves on the pool and the tracks. Despite Western Visayas’ romps in track and field and points-rich titles in softball and volleyball, it still ended up third with 240 points.

“Our plan was to dominate all (events), including swimming and track and field, which we really used to dominate before,” said the NCR chief, whose contingent produced two of the meet’s “Highest Pointers” and record-breakers in swimming, Mark Joseph Rominquit (elem boys) and Axel Ngui (sec boys) and another mark-setter in Gabriel Castelo.

Although WV remained No. 2 overall, regional director Mildred Garay expressed satisfaction with the region’s showing here.

“The athletes’ performances improved, especially in measurable sports,” she said of her delegation, from which came athletics “Highest Pointers” runner Jasmin Tayco (elem girls) and thrower Ralph Efraim Gesulgon (secondary boys), as well as record-breakers middle-distance runner Joneza Sustituedo and thrower Maika de Oro.

“We’re not actually shooting for No. 1 knowing that we didn’t have (training) facilities like NCR. We’re mostly composed of students from public schools whereas 70 percent of NCR’s athletes come from private schools,” Garay added.

Rominquit, a seventh grader at Lourdes School, and Calabarzon’s Catherine Bondad, the “Highest Pointer” in elementary girls swimming, were the most bemedalled bets in the City of Shrine with seven gold medals apiece.

A total of 10 Palaro marks were broken in this edition, five each in athletics and swimming – a far cry from the 26 aggregate last year.

Record breakers were Ilocos’ Stepanie Cimatu (sec girls javelin), Calabarzon’s Jennyrose Rosales (sec girls 400m), Sustituedo (elem girls 800m and 1,500m run) and de Oro (sec girls discus); NCR’s Rominquit, Abdulrahim Nooh, Andrae Pogiongko and Alnair Guevarra (elem boys 4x50m medley relay), Castelo (sec boys 100m fly), Ngui (sec boys 200m free) and MIMAROPA’s Francis May Pillado (girls elem 100m fly), and Calabarzon’s Jose Palencia, Franz Marquez, Lawrence Francisco and Jethro Chua (boys sec 4x50 m freestyle relay).