Gold medal blackout hits Cevees in Palaro

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – It was a rather heart-breaking day for the Central Visayas squad as it faltered from one sport to another and settled for only a silver and four bronzes from three different events here at the Leyte Sports Development Center yesterday.

The secondary lawn tennis boys team came out to be the biggest disappointment at the Eastern Visayas State University tennis courts after failing to move up to the medal round.

 The Bernardine “Niño” Siso-led CVIRAA netters, the defending champion, crashed out of the medal round after bowing to DAVRAA.

Their female counterparts were still fighting for life in the championship match against CALABARZON as off press time.

Sally Mae Siso won her match against Aura Opolencia, 8-2, but her sister Sallydine along with Kristel Mae Buenacosa lost in the doubles to Shane Quitara and Raiza Opolencia, 4-8, enabling CALABARZON to forge a deciding match.

On the other hand, out of the first 12 final events in swimming, CVIRAA salvaged only one bronze courtesy of Loren Dale Echavez in the secondary girls 400-meter freestyle.

Echavez had a promising start, but lost her steam after the first 200m swim to settle for third place with the time of four minutes and 53 seconds.

Three records were broken at the first day of the swimming competition via the 200m freestyle and the 100m backstroke. Two of which were in the 200m freestyle through Omar Philip Dacera of Region XII with a 2:11 clocking and Gian Berino with the time of 2:09.33.

The other record was hammered by Johansen Aguilarin in the 100m breast stroke in 1:01.10, erasing the previous mark of 1:02.26 owned by Banjo Borja.

In athletics, CVIRAA got another bronze courtesy of Jasper Lance Basister in the secondary boys discus throw.

The other bronze of CVIRAA came from the elementary gymnastics team competition won by the National Capital Region.

Last year’s darkhorse Tracy Badonio failed to grab a medal in the individual all-around as she could only make it to fifth place.

CVIRAA’s secondary badminton girls picked up only a bronze in the team competition after losing to Region IV-A.

CVIRAA’s secondary football squad was also eliminated from the tournament after being badly beaten by CALABARZON,1-5.

CVIRAA’s secondary basketball players, however, are eyeing for their third straight win today following an 84-68 rout of CAR.

CVIRAA’s secondary softbelles, for their part, posted an even 1-1 record. They won over Central Luzon, 2-0, but fell prey to Davao, 2-5. – THE FREEMAN