Bacolod rookies nail golds in B Pinoy elims

MANILA, Philippines - A pair of first-timers from Bacolod and Cebu City claimed the first two golds in athletics as action in the Visayas qualifying leg of Batang Pinoy 2011 got under way yesterday at the Gov. Mariano F. Percides Memorial Coliseum in Dumaguete City.

Joebe Panhilason Jr, a 14-year-old junior from Tay Tung School in Bacolod, dominated the boys’ shot put with a throw of 10.09 meters and won the gold in his very first try in the 15-and-under youth competition.

“This is my first time to join a national tournament and won a gold medal,” said the 5-foot-8 Panhilason.

Cebu City’s Bera Rose Saragena, also a first-timer, claimed the gold in the girls shot put with a 7.17m throw in her fifth try.

“This is a big gift for my parents,” said the 15-year-old Saragena, a third year student from Cebu Institute of Technology.

Meanwhile, over 700 athletes joined the event although the national sport arnis was not included in the calendar.

The organizing Philippine Sports Commission, however, said it will conduct a national finals for arnis to coincide with the qualifying leg of the National Capital Region at the University of Makati on Nov. 29-Dec. 2.

According to PSC commissioner and Batang Pinoy 2011 in-charge Jolly Gomez, the government sports agency will tie-up with technical officials from the Department of Education to be able to hold the event for arnis after encountering problems with Arnis Philippines.

“We need to protect our kids so we decided to have just one national final for them. We will tie-up with DepEd technical officials also on the conduct of the sports of arnis,” Gomez said.

Provincial administrator Jose Arnel Francisco, who represented Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, Dumaguete City Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria and PSC commissioners Akiko Thomson-Guevarra, Chito Loyzaga and Gomez graced Wednesday’s opening rites of the event.

“Sports events such as this will definitely be among the reasons why we have good citizens and leaders in the different sectors of the society. We believe that sports is an essential tool to mold our young generation to become responsible, disciplined and the promise of a healthy citizenry,” Degamo said.

At stake in the Batang Pinoy 2011 sponsored by Smart, Maynilad and Summit Natural Drinking Water are berths in the national pool which will be trained to compete in the second Youth Olympic Games to be held in Nanjing, China in 2014.

Aside from athletics, archery, badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, judo, table tennis, lawn tennis and wrestling were also held during the first day of competition which is also supported by MILO, Jollibee, The British Council, Standard Insurance, Negros Navigation-Super Ferry and Kids 3 Food Supplement.

Swimming will be held along with taekwondo will be held tomorrow, November 12 while Weightlifting kicks off this aftenoon.

A total of 18 cities and provinces participated in the event which include Tacloban, La Carlota, McArthur, Cebu, Maasin, Bayawan, Bacolod, Calbayog, San Jose (Antique), Bohol, Talisay, Himamaylan, Leyte, Sibulan, Tanjay, Manjuyod, Valencia and host Dumaguete City.