Frigillana stays on track with two more golds

NAGA CITY, Philippines – National Capital Region’s Ferdinand Frigillana continued to shine in the pool, picking up two more gold medals, including a stirring come-from-behind win in the men’s 100-m freestyle in the PRISAA National Games at the Metro Naga Sports Complex pool yesterday.

Still recovering from a grueling win in 1,500-m freestyle earlier in the day, Frigillana used a strong finishing kick in the last 10 meters to nip Region 5’s Brylle Zapanta and remain on track in matching his seven-gold haul in last year’s PRISAA in Zamboanga last year where he copped the MVP plum.

The 21-year-old San Beda College standout timed 56.45 seconds, five-tenths of a second ahead of Zapanta, who settled for silver in 56.96. Region 4A’s Manuel Heartmann took the bronze (58.78).

It was also Frigillina’s fifth straight gold on top of booking his fifth meet record, breaking his previous mark of 57.39 in the 2008 Zamboanga edition of the event. 

“I know I was behind going into last 50 meters so I poured it all out in the last 10 meters,” said Frigillana.

Earlier, Frigillana breezed through in the 1,500-m free in 18.46.29, way ahead of silver medalist and San Beda teammate Jericho Escobar (19.47.17). Region 7’s Rowan Fernandez (19.55.20) settled for the bronze.

Frigillana guns for two more victories in the 400-m free and 4x100-meter medley relay at the close of the swimming competitions Thursday in his bid for a second PRISAA National Games MVP in a row.

The Big City bets continued to assert their swimming supremacy for the second consecutive day by capturing 10 of the 14 events on schedule in the Games also backed by Smart Sports and San Miguel Corporation.

Teohdy Gavino and Apryl Pearl Herrera snared a pair of gold medals each in boosting’s NCR’s relentless drive to claim the swimming overall championship.

Gavino, a San Beda marketing sophomore, won the men’s 200-meter backstroke in 2:20.79 before capturing his fifth gold in ruling the 50-meter backstroke in 28.94, erasing the two-year-old standard of 29.41 by Michael Mars Danila set in Iloilo.

On the other hand, Herrera, who won three golds on Tuesday, added the women’s 100-m free (1:06.54) and women’s 4x50-meter relay where she anchored the team that also had Sahara Jaitulla, Frances de Guzman and Jorelle Vinluan to win in 2:07.20.

Three more meet standards fell by the wayside in track and field early Wednesday before heavy afternoon rains disrupted the athletic schedule, compounding the organizers’ woes after a two-hour power outage hit the Metro Naga Sports Compex Tuesday morning as the local utility firm changed a transformer in the area.

Region 1’s Rochelle Corpuz topped the long jump in 5.83 meters, besting the previous standard of 5.53 meters, while Region 6’s Manuel Lasanque clinched the men’s high jump with a leap of 2.02 meters to shatter the old mark of 1.9 meters.