Luzon jins snare 6 golds in Milo Olympics

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines  – Young jins kickstarted Luzon’s campaign in the 2010 Milo National Little Olympics, winning six gold medals to top the taekwondo competitions on Saturday at Xavier University here.

The boys from Luzon figured in a showdown with Mindanao bets, splitting the gold medals in six weight divisions, while their female teammates matched the three-gold output in the three-day event featuring some of the country’s top school-based athletes.

 The Luzon high school squad, composed mostly of sophomores and juniors, edged the Mindanao bets who bagged five and National Capital Region, which won four. Visayas won one.

 Suzanne Caslangen defeated NCR’s Zia Baluyot in the girls’ bantamweight finals, Apriel Solimen bagged the welterweight gold by beating NCR’s Patricia Gonzales while Brighty Salazar downed Mindanao’s Kristelle Salmon in the heavyweight gold medal match.

 Benjamin Sembrano downed Rod Cadion in the featherweight division, Keno Anthony Mendoza defeated Alistair Gongob in the welterweight class and Clifferson Romvar turned back Andre Arcillas in the middleweight finals.

 “I’m very satisfied with the way my players performed tonight,” said Luzon coach Clarence Mortel. “They are younger than most of the competitors but they showed maturity during pressure situations, and some of them fighting against local jins.”

 The home bets evened the score with Luzon’s male jins as heavyweight Jan Mark Rodriguez outpointed Joshua Dizon, Josafat Ligayan downed Paolo Cipriano in the lightweight final and Alexis Golez defeated Hubert Roca in the flyweight division.

 Iona Salvacion nipped NCR’s Inna Dionisio in the girls’ finweight final while Cyrmin Perlas downed Luzon’s Melanie Douglas in the middleweight divisions to deliver two more gold medals for Mindanao.

 Regine Lumbo of NCR won the girls’ flyweight class, Weedee Valenzuela topped the featherweight division and Chrism Magdaraog reigned supreme in the lightweight class while finweight Tristan Avelino delivered the lone gold in the boys’ side.

 San Beda Alabang’s Hannah Dato created huge waves in the swimming competitions at the Don Gregorio Pelaez Sports Center, scoring a golden treble as NCR snared all but five of the 28 gold medals at stake on opening day.

 Dato led the Big City tankers with wins in the 100-and 400-meter freestyle and 200-m butterfly as NCR swept the eight relay events-boys and girls 200 and 400-m medley races in both grade school and high school divisions.

 At the Corpus Christi School, Mindanao claimed the team title in high school rhythmic gymnastics, chalking up 137.51 points to Visayas’ 133.91 and Luzon’s 71.95.

Visayas grabbed the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics team title with 103.25 points over Mindanao (99.80) and Luzon (76.35) and also topped the men’s side with 75.45 points over NCR (67.65) and Mindanao (66.85).