CEBU, Philippines – Cebu placed third in the 2009 Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) National Games in Naga City.
Perennial champion National Capital Region (NCR) capped another championship with Western Visayas finishing second.
Table tennis provided two more medals for Cebu in the last day of competition with Glenn Nayre and Jay Impuesto winning gold and bronze, respectively.
Moreover, Cebu’s Jessica Jawad-Honoridez won her second straight Best Coach title while one of her wards, Jennifer Jacalan ran away with the Most Outstanding Athlete award.
In lawn tennis, Cebu won the men’s singles and swept the team competition. The tandem of Floreza Alesna and Kennex Abadia won the gold in mixed doubles. Earlier, Abadia won the singles event.
The men and women’s volleyball teams came up with silver medals.
Cebu or PRISAA VII also won two golds in Karatedo while the football squad ended up third. The women’s basketball team also took silver but the men’s squad missed a medal after finishing fourth.
The track and field team of PRISAA-VII had the most contribution with 17-5-8 medal tally with Lindley Fran Navaja leading the charge.
Navaja, the fastest man of the 2009 PRISAA spiced up Cebu’s bid with five golds including an upset victory over national team member Junrey Bano in the 200-m final.
The swimmers tallied 7-7-10, taekwondo with 1-3-3, badminton with 4-6-5 and dancesport with a 2-2 medal finish.
Cebu had a total of 50 golds, 47 silvers and 45 bronzes in the modified medal count. — Caecent No-ot Magsumbol (THE FREEMAN)