Seven-year-old makes waves

She seemed to have failed in her attempt to break into the national consciousness with her record-breaking feats in the Batang Pinoy Games, no thanks to the amazing streak put up by trackster Aiza Cometa and the dominating performances by co-swimmers Lambert Guiriba, Ronald Papa and Bea del Mundo in their respective divisions.

But Carla Gonzales appears undaunted by the virtual oversight, either ignoring the slight or is simply unaffected by the spectacle of being in the limelight.

After all, one shouldn’t expect much from a girl who just turned seven.

But the tall, mestiza Grade I pupil at the Assumption College in San Lorenzo Village, Makati proved to be a sight to behold in the pool as she splashed her way to a couple of record-shattering performances and then establishing a mark in another event.

With focus and affection on Cometa and company, Gonzales, whose brother Paolo is a former member of the national swimming team, quietly shattered two records in the 6-under age division for girls behind the glare of spotlight, turning in a fast 45.09-second clocking in the 50-m backstroke, and an eye-popping 48.37-second swim in the 50-m breaststroke, a feat that even impressed her coach Angelo Lozada.

Then she set a new mark in the 100-m freestyle which was held for the first time in the multi-event games held to discover, tap and train talents for future international competitions.

It was Gonzales’ first crack in competitions of this magnitude although she has had a number of victories in the age-group championships in the Philippine Columbian Association where she is a member.

So impressive was Gonzales that observers believed she could’ve romped away with more gold medals if not for the event’s ruling limiting the participation of each athlete to just three events.

But Gonzales’ exploits should be enough to impress everybody, her feats more than enough to convince the officials that here is one girl who not only seems to have a promise to make it big in the days to come, but has the potential to become one of the country’s future stars.