Russel Camero, a third-year criminology student at the University of Luzon, burned rubber under the blazing summer heat in winning the women’s 800-meter gold medal with a time of two minutes, 18.38 seconds at the Panaad Sports Complex here.
A promising 19-year-old, Camero was a stride ahead of Cagayan Valley’s Judelyn Miranda (2:19.19) and Western Visayas’ Marigen Campos (2:20.52). Their times were all better than the old meet record of 2:22.29 set by NCR’s Dely Condez in 1997 in Naga City.
"I really trained hard for this and gave it all during the race," said the native of Dalaoan, Anda in Pangasinan, in Pilipino.
Camero is being coached by Nancy Navalta, the athlete from La Union who created a big stir after setting records in women’s 100-m and 200-m of the Palarong Pambansa in 1993 and 1994, but whose true gender was severely questioned later on.
The finals of the century dash were also held yesterday with NCR’s Josephine delos Reyes winning the women’s gold in 12.91 seconds, and Western Mindanao’s Crisanto Cipriano bagging the men’s gold in 10.85 ticks. Both marks were off the meet records.
Delos Reyes, 19, from University of Santo Tomas, won the bronze in the UAAP last February. Behind her in yesterday’s finals was Calabarzon’s Remelyn Arceo (13.00) and NCR teammate Mercy Cana (13.03).
The men’s 100-m final was tainted with controversy when Reneboy Rapal of NCR (San Sebastian) claimed he crossed the finish ahead of Cirpriano and not behind at 10.86. He said the lack of a photo-finish camera robbed him of the gold. Hand-times (one for each runner) are being used here.
"It’s okay. And I’ll take it because that’s the way it is. But if only there was a camera, we could have seen better," said Rapal, a silver medalist in the NCAA. He gamely received the silver and even raised the Cirpriano’s hand at the podium. Another NCR bet, John Adones of FEU, was third at 10.87.
As of presstime, only eight of the 11 athletics gold lined up for the day have been disputed. The five others were won by NCR’s Diwata Pelaez (women’s 100-m hurdles, 15.73), Calabarzon’s Melchor Ayon-Ayon (men’s 100-m hurdles, 15.44), Cordillera Administrative Region’s Edison Manansala (men’s 800-m, 1:56.95), Western Visayas‚ Mayyen de Oro (women’s discus, 33.50 m) and CAR’s Elizear Sunang (men’s discus, 37.29 m).
Six golds in athletics were disputed Saturday and 10 more each will be up for grabs today and tomorrow – the final day at the tracks. So far, it’s NCR showing the way with six gold, four silver and seven bronze medals, followed by Calabarzon (2-3-0), CAR (2-0-2), Southern Mindanao (1-3-0), Ilocos (1-0-2), Western Visayas (1-0-1) and Western Mindanao (1-0-0).
The two-day swimming competition begins today at the Panaad Sports Complex with 15 of the 31 gold medals to be contested. The basketball quarterfinals will also fire off at the University of St. La Salle while action will continue to heat up in badmindon, chess, football, taekwondo, volleyball and softball.