Guiriba blitzes one-min barrier

BACOLOD - Swimmer Ronald Alejo "Lambert" Guiriba breached the one-minute mark in his event and became the first quadruple gold medalist but attention shifted to the young Muslims of Basilan who grabbed a piece of the headlines - in a positive manner - in the warfront of the 2000 Palarong Pambansa here yesterday.

Guiriba, who had won the 200m and 100m butterfly in record breaking fashion and helped the powerful NCR team to the gold in the relays earlier, shattered the old mark of 1:01.77 with a clocking of 58.76 in the heats in the 100m freestyle.

He won the gold with a slower time of 59.27 but that effort gave him his fourth as he led NCR's six-gold medal haul in swimming and the overall lead in the race for President Joseph Estrada's P2-M incentive for the champion in the elementary competitions.

Two Muslims belonging to the Tausogs became instant heroes in their first appearance in the nationwide search for future stars when they won the gold in their respective events in athletics, while four set new norms in the medal-rich sport which staked 16 gold medals in the day.

Hamid Sali, strengthened by what he called "the powers of Allah," won the elementary boys shotput event with a throw over 12.42 meters, improving the 11.9m by Rowell Sombrero of the Bicol Region in the 1997 Palaro in Pili, Camarines Sur.

"I had only 21 days of training for my sport, and eight days with the team," said the 12-year-old Sali, an elementary graduate at Isabela, Basilan, in half-perfect Pilipino.

His teammate, Mussirie Nieto, from Tungawan, Basilan won the gold in the 400m hurdles, in 1:01.4.

The day's new record holders, who will each get P100,000 in assistance from the Philippine Sports Commission under a new incentive package promised by the President, were Angelie Cabrerors in the girls elementary long jump (4.99m), Ma. Clydell Sadiri in the elementary girls triple jump (10.13m), and Rachel Perdido in the girls elementary javelin throw (36.18m).

Ronald Papa, younger brother of former Southeast Asian Games backstroke champion Ryan, topped the 50m backstroke for boys 12-under in swimming with a time of 33.06m. The Grade 7 Ateneo honor student earlier won the 100m backstroke.