Central Visayas lass, Western Visayas mainstay snare Palaro golds

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – Gia Bucag of Central Visayas made a grand Palaro debut by besting the field in the elementary javelin while Niño Espinosa of Western Visayas leapt to victory in the secondary long jump as the Palarong Pambansa got underway yesterday at the Leyte Sports Development Center here.

The 11-year-old Bucag showed a lot of promise in her very first stint in the annual games, dishing out a 35.54-meter throw to beat Western Visayas’ bet Elisha Cabuguason’s 34.33m and Socsargen’s Caren Magay’s 32.50m for the gold medal.

“I’m happy with this win,” said Bucag, a daughter of jobless parents from Cebu province who lives with grandmother Alice Bermel in Bambanan, Cebu.

Ilocos Region’s Stephani Cimatu later made a 36.64-m heave on her sixth and last throw to capture the secondary javelin gold over a tough field that included Jemma Landisan of Cordillera Administrative Region and Jansell May Candelaria, who settled for the silver and bronze medals with 34.20m and 33.39m, respectively.

Elena Camiring of Western Visayas, who broke Cimatu’s elementary javelin record of 38.53m in 2007 with a throw of 39.63m last year, groped for form this time and wound up sixth with 31.47m.

With his previous best jump of 6.74m erased by Socsargen’s Domingo Cabradilla’s 6.77m, Espinosa leapt to 6.84m in his last attempt to snatch the gold medal in a victory that more than made up for his sixth place finish in Puerto Princesa last year.

“I was confident, I never really doubted I’ll win,” said Espinosa.

Cabradilla, an 18-year-old high school graduate at General Santos City High School, settled for silver, also an improvement from his bronze medal effort last year.

Adrian Ollibac of CAR finished with the bronze in 6.57m.

The formal Palaro opening rites will be held today with President Arroyo as the guest speaker in rites to be highlighted by the traditional parade of 17 participating regions.    

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said that the Department of Education (DepEd) was ready to do its best to ensure an orderly staging of the Palaro.

“If last year we did a good job, this year we will do even better,” said Lapus.

He also said that the DepEd’s Task Force on School Sports, which will provide the technical assistance to oversee the various games especially the training of the officials who will officiate in the different sports events, has made sure that they observe stringent standards in the conduct of the games.

“We will continue to raise the level of competition as well as the management of the Palaro because it is the international arena that we should focus on. Let our goal be the Olympics,” Lapus said.

Jonathan Grefanda gave Cagayan Valley its first gold by topping the elementary discus throw in 29.02m. Alon Nale of Northern Mindanao took the silver in 27.68m while Raffy Tiad of Western Visayas made a 26.18m throw for the bronze.

Western Visayas notched its second gold medal courtesy of Jerry Sucaldito, who ruled the triple jump in 13.89 meters, beating teammate Espinosa’s 13.68 and Bicol bet Mark Diones’ 13.50.

In boys’ volleyball, Calabarzon overpowered Cagayan Valley, 25-17, 26-24, and Davao walloped CARAGA, 25-19, 25-18, to open their respective campaigns.

Ma. Clarisse Joy Alcarion downed Diezanne Jireh Antipaso, 8-4, to seal NCR’s 2-1 win over host Eastern Visayas in lawn tennis. – With report from Rainier Allan Ronda