St. Jude swimmers cop five golds

District 4 and District 6 won the first two gold medals in lawn tennis even as St. Jude swam its way to five golds yesterday in Day 5 of the third Manila Youth Games at the Rizal Sports Complex.

District 4’s Zhane Quitara and Chynna Mamawal downed District 6’s Paola Magpan and Josephine Arevalo, 10-2, to cop the girls’ doubles 12-and-under gold while District 6’s Jacqueline Arevalo and Princess Barredo trounced District 4’s Abegail Orlian and Janine Ope for the girls’ 15-U plum.

But the day belonged to the St. Jude tankers as the delegation from San Miguel blitzed its way to five gold medals highlighted by a win in the boys’ 12-under 200-meter medley relay with a time of 2:55.32.

The other wins came from Conan Chua (boys’ 6-under 50-m fly), Sean Wong (boys’ 11-12 50-m fly), Regine Yu (girls’ 11-12 50-m fly) and Santhiel Chua (boys’ 13-14 50-m fly) as St. Jude hiked its total to 15 gold medals in this meet organized by Manila Sports Council chair Ali Atienza.

There were also the double gold medalists.

Unattached Erika Visitacion splashed her way to a pair of gold medal swims in the 11-12 200-m individual medley and 100-m freestyle with PCSST’s Tessa Alcantara (13-14 200-m IM and 50-m fly), Uno High’s Gian Berino (9-10 200-m IM and 100-m freestyle) and Brgy. 47’s Patricia Yam (9-10 200-m IM and 100-m freestyle) duplicating her feat.

Over at the Rizal ballpark, Cloine Muyco hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning as Adamson University-A edged UAAP rival University of Santo Tomas, 5-3, to cop the college softball gold.

But the event, backed by the PSC, Pagcor, Smart, Air21, WG&A, Nestle, Intrasports, Café Lupe, Pressworks, victor Sports, Harrison Plaza and Edsamail, was not without controversy.

Atienza, son of re-elected Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, said they might sanction a coach and his son in swimming if the two will be proven that they are non-Manila residents.

"We’ll investigate this matter at kapag napatunayan na hindi sila taga-Maynila, we’ll strip the medal kung mananalo ‘yung bata and we’ll sanction the coach," said Atienza, who refused to divulge the names of the culprits.