Orig, Central Visayas dominate PRISAA swim

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Tiny Jackelyn Orig stood head and shoulders over the rest of the field on Wednesday, emerging as the most bemedalled athlete of the PRISAA National Collegiate Games in an eye-popping windup at the close of  swimming action at the Cebu City Sports Center here.

Vying in the sportsfest for the first time, 5-foot-2 pride of Lucena, Quezon went on a record-breaking run on the way to clinching four golds to humble hometown ace Loren Dale Echavez, who fell one gold short of her goal anew in the face of the CALABARZON mermaid’s amazing show.

Pacing herself superbly, the 16-year-old St. Anne College of Lucena freshman won the women’s 50-meter butterfly (31.16), 200 individual medley (2:40.62) in new meet standards then added two more in the 4x100 medley relay (5:29.58) and 4x200 freestyle, which Orig anchored to another record (10.15.4).

“Masaya po ako pero pagod sa dami ng events na sinalihan ko ngayon,” said the soft-spoken Orig after her marathon performance yesterday to complete a perfect seven-for-seven of her events, counting her earlier wins in the 100, 200 butterfly and 400 IM.

It was also worth a P7,000 windfall of incentives – P1,000 for each gold – for the eldest daughter of a junk shop driver and full-time homemaker.

Echavez added her sixth gold in ruling the women’s 400 free, besting her previous record of 4:55 in Zamboanga City a year ago with a clocking of 4:55, but was foiled in her bid to match Orig’s haul when Central Visayas was surprisingly relegated to the bronze in 4x200 freestyle relay.

The erstwhile record-holders in the event (10:19.3), the Cebuanas were done in by the lacklustre showing of second-leg swimmer Lorens Goyenechea, who complained she was exhausted after competing in the 200, 100 and 4x50 freestyle relay last Tuesday.

“My legs were aching and I was forced to take it easy after seeing action in three events the previous day,” said Goyenechea, a BS Biology classmate of Echavez at the University of San Carlos, who was close to tears after feeling she let her team down.

La Salle-Dasmariñas freshman Jerome Magallanes was adjudged as the best men’s swimmer after adding the men’s 50-meter breaststroke (32.46) and 200 IM (2:28.99) title to raise his tally to five golds as the Region 4-A tankers swept individual top honors in both divisions of swimming.

Teammate Wilson Rabino, a fourth-year student at the University of Perpetual Help-Laguna, also had his fourth gold in clinching the men’s 400-meter free.

But despite CALABARZON’s solid outing in swimming, as of noontime yesterday, Central Visayas (Region 7) still had a grip of top spot in the overall medal standings with 48 golds, 15 silvers and 22 bronzes in the sports showcase supported by Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

Region 4-A was a distant second (32-18-28), Western Visayas (Region 6) was running third (26-24-21) and Southern Mindanao (Region XI) was fourth (6-27-27).

In track and field Western Visayas won the women’s 4x100-meter relay yesterday in 50.8 seconds, foiling the bid of Lorna Olarita, whose Central Visayas squad had to settle for the silver (51.3), while Southern Mindanao took the bronze (52.1)

Region 7’s Ernesto Ybanez added his second gold following his victory in the men’s 100-meter dash by topping the long jump (6.89 meters) while teammate Irin Baluran captured the women’s triple jump (11.39).

The Region 6 bets continued their strong showing in athletics with Joseph Binas clinching the men’s 400-meter low hurdles (54.5) while Jason Calpa bagged the javelin throw with a heave of 50.26 meters.