Karatekas, netter hike QC gold haul

Quezon City firmed up its bid for the overall championship as it won five  gold medals in karatedo and table tennis yesterday to stay on top of the National Capital Region Qualifying Leg of the second Philippine Olympic Festival at the Rizal Sports Complex.

Chloe Adrianne Villasis copped the kata gold for 8-9 years old for one of the four victories in karatedo while Michael Rodolfo defeated Jovani Cabanatan of Marikina, 11-9, 11-8, 11-5, to capture the table tennis gold in the boys’ under-17 division.

Joyce Ann del Ayre (10-11), Elsha Berillo (12-13) and Raquel Luzaras (14-15) accounted for the other three karatedo gold medals for Quezon City, whose participation is backed by Mayor Sonny Belmonte.

The victories hiked Quezon City haul to 37-24-19 (gold-silver-bronze) as it led Manila (26-21-28) and Pasig (20-4-4) heading into the last two days of the event aimed at discovering future national athletes.

Quezon City reigned in the pool over the weekend with a whopping 32-gold harvest.

Rounding up the top 10 in this event sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission and backed by Globe, The Philippine STAR, AMA Computer College, Asia Brewery, Accel, Negros Navigation and Creativity Lounge are Las Piñas (9-25-10), Taguig (5-5-8), Makati (4-7-4), Parañaque (3-11-9), Valenzuela (2-6-1), Marikina (2-1-3) and San Juan (1-6-9).

“I’m happy I won, my hard work paid off,” said the 19-year-old Rodolfo, the Most Outstanding Athlete in table tennis in the recent Milo Little Olympics, in Filipino.

El Niño Malabiga of Marikina downed Homel Aristotle Cunanan of Taguig to seize the solo lead in the boys’ under-14 class with 3.5 points after four rounds of the chess competitions.

Carenlia de Castro topped the kata event for 16-25 years old to give Marikina its second gold. Pateros also struck with its first gold medal courtesy of Henesy Aragon in the girls’ 17-and-under class.