Central Visayas grabs six more golds but stays fifth (Week-long Palaro set to end with a bang today

CEBU, Philippines — Central Visayas carted away six more golds medals but remained at fifth place in the overall standings heading into the final day of the week-long 64th Palarong Pambansa.

The biggest story of the day was written by the secondary girls 3x3 basketball team when the host region represented by Shairamee Armecin, Stephanie Paden, Sofia Alexis Petalcorin, and Jeanelmae Pontillas from Catmon Integrated School under the guidance of coach Ariel Panorel Aying stunned the National Capital Region (NCR) via a 12-11 cliffhanger to come out as champion.

Boxers Cris Ivhan Espina and AJ Basalo punched their way to a golden double, Naina Dominique Tagle sustained her hot charge as the archers added a pair of gilts to their trophy case, while a promising jin dished out a golden performance to help Region 7 stay at fifth in the leaderboard with a total of 104 medals broken down into 28 golds, 40 silvers, and 36 bronzes.

The powerhouse NCR is the virtual overall champion with an unassailable medal haul of 86 golds,  62 silvers, and 71 bronzes.

Calabarzon and Western Visayas occupied the second and third spots with a 57-40-51 and 51-35-39 gold-silver-bronze tally, respectively, while Davao Region is at fourth with a 30-25-33 haul.

In boxing at the Cebu Coliseum, Espina of Cebu City Don Carlos A. Gothong Memorial National High School outpointed John Elmer Napoles of Socsksargen, 4-1, to reign supreme in the school boys light flyweight category (46-48 kgs.), while Basalo of Talisay City National High School won by split verdict over Miguelito Bantilan, Jr. of Davao Region, 3-2, to rule the junior boys light bantamweight division (50-52 kgs.).

Their comrades in Justin Trazo and Fred Rich Locsin both settled for only silver after losing via similar 4-1 decision over Edcel Dayrit of Western Visayas and Jefferson Amaya of Davao region in the youth boys bantamweight (51-54 kgs.) and junior boys light flyweight (46-48 kgs.), respectively.

On the other hand, the red-hot Tagle of Dumaguete City’s Silliman University made it a four-gold haul after topping the secondary girls Olympic round of archery competition.

Ralph Perocho of BCSTEC-HS in Bayawan City, Davayn Philip of Mason of SU, and Marco Angelo Villanueva of St. Louis School-Don Bosco in Dumaguete struck gilt in the team Olympic round.

Rena Jean Tigmo of the University of Cebu grabbed part of the spotlight after winning gold in secondary girls taekwondo Category 3 (over 44 kgs. and not exceeding 46 kgs.). — (FREEMAN)