22 swim marks fall; age cheats unmasked

Tankers produced the best and worst news as 22 records fell and a Tawi-Tawi tanker fell out of grace and was stripped of his gold medal for age cheating on the third day of the second Batang Pinoy National Championships at the San Luis RECS Village here yesterday.

Big City bet Lambert Guiriba copped two more gold medals to become the games’ first triple gold medalist.

Riding the crest of a record-setting victory in the 50-m freestyle for boys aged 11-12 years Wednesday, Guiriba erased two more marks, both by James Guinto of Cavite in the 100-freestyle and 100-m butterfly.

Guiriba broke the old mark of 1:00.94 set two years back with a time of 57.92 and followed it up with another record swim of 1:03.26 in the 100-m butterfly to best Guinto’s 1:07.27.

Three more gold medals went Manila’s way, hiking its total to seven, one better than host and defending champion Laguna and Iloilo.

Bea Del Mundo (1:16.94) and Gian Berino (43.30), both gold medal winners at the start of the swimming events the other day, completed Manila’s four-gold harvest by topping the girls’ 7-8 100-m freestyle and the boys 6-and-under 50-m backstroke, respectively.

After a lean one-gold first day in the pool, Laguna struck for a five-gold haul courtesy of Vanessa Martinez (girls’ 11-12 , 100m free,1:07.06), Michaelmar Danila (boys’ 11-12, 50m back, 32.02), Katrina Recio (girls’ 11-12, 50m backstroke, 35.03), Banjo Borja (boys’ 7-8 50m backstroke, 38.16) and Camille Malillos (girls’ 7-8, 50m backstroke,44.18).

The win thus raised Laguna’s swimming gold medals to six, same with Iloilo, which got five gold medals yesterday with two coming from Chrizel Lagunday in the girls’ 9-10 100m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.

The other three Iloilo gold medals came from Doreen Peronilla (girls’ 11-12, 50m breaststroke, 38.280), Thomas Measures (7-8 50m breaststroke, 43.63) and Kristine Cabasac (girls’ 11-12 100m butterfly, 1:15.64).

But the age cheating controversy cast a shadow over the Games proceedings as organizers disqualified an overaged Tawi-Tawi tanker who appeared older than his declared age and warned other athletes they would be given similarly disciplinary measures if they were found to have violated the eligibility rule.

Games organizer Ariel Paredes said the PSC would likewise ban coaches involved in the controversy. Suspected overaged players were reportedly found in swimming, football, volleyball, gymnastics and athletics.

A gymnast from Sultan Kudarat and some athletes from the Maguindanao delegation were also being questioned regarding their eligibility.

Sharing the limelight with Guiriba was local bet Aiza Cometa, who crowned herself the meet’s newest sprint queen by ruling both the girls’ 100-m and 200p-m races.

Cometa, a 12-year-old native of Liliw town, made a fitting follow-up to her century dash victory the other day with a gold medal triumph in the 200-m dash where she clocked in 27.1, exactly two seconds off the old mark of 29.1 by Evelyn Hinampas of Misamis Oriental.

In other athletics events, Maguindanao, the team which was accused of allegedly fielding in ineligible players, and Camarines Sur struck with two gold medals apiece.

Nasser Nayao and Roel Torres provided Maguindanao’s wins on the track after the two topped the boys’ 200-m dash and the 1,500-m run, respectively.

Nayao reached the tape with a time of 24.1 to beat Albay’s Tyrone Ng (24.5) and Cecille Bayobag of Zamboanga del Norte (25.3) while Torres had a time of 4:42.9 to defeat Ernie Opiana of Albay (4:45.9) and a Jayson Ruado of Camarines Sur (4:52.3).

Camarines Sur, on the other hand, got its gold medals from triumphs by Jeanezil Queribin in the girls’ 1,500-m run and Gerlie Gumba in the girls’ high jump.

Queribin beat to the tape Aiza Violente of Misamis Oriental (5:23.1) and Sheny Labrado of Davao City (5:24.7).

Gumba, in contrast, needed to beat Gemma Galang via tiebreak after the two tied with 1.39 each after six jumps to win the gold medal. Jenelyn Progio of Capiz finished at third with, 1:37 for the bronze.

In cycling, Stephen Rome Romaquin established himself as Laguna’s spoiler as he won his second gold medal, this time in the 10-12 10-km road racer with a time of 16:10.40.

Romaquin bested Laguna’s Dennis Jared Pajarillo (18:31.98) and teammate Mark Anthony Banihit (18:53.68) to win the only two events out of the nine available. The other seven was taken by the host squad.

Capping Laguna’s domination the cycling competition was Jeremei Camarao, who clinched his second gold in the 4-km massed start with a time of 10:16.76 Gonzalo topped the 4 km the other day.

In chess, James Bulitao of Davao del Norte and Boris Michael Diez of Davao City kept their hold of the top after notching their fifth victory after five rounds in the boys’ 12-and-under section.

Rachel Panganiban of Bulacan leads the distaff side in the girls’ 12-and-under division.

Karl Victor Ochoa of Bulacan and Sheider Nebato of General Santos had 4.5 points to pace the boys’ 10-and-under group while Kimberly Jane Cunanan of Quezon City remained unscathed after five games to strengthen her grip of the top spot in the girls’ 10-and-under category.