Swim golden girl fuels CV charge

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Loren Dale Echavez sustained top form and won three more gold medals to highlight a swimming spree by Central Visayas in Private Schools Athletic Association National Collegiate Games at the Cebu City Sports Center here yesterday.

The 18-year-old Echavez captured the women’s 800m and 100-meter freestyle events in runaway fashion then capped her awesome show by anchoring the Region 7 team to victory in the women’s 4x50-meter relay to remain in the hunt of a seven-gold sweep of all her events.

Echavez has already won five golds, including her victories in the 50 and 200-meter free in the opener last Monday.

A third-year BS Biology student at the University of San Carlos, Echavez also accounted for three of the six golds by Central Visayas yesterday, bringing the region’s two-day tally to nine golds, six silvers and 11 bronzes.

Southern Tagalog, which dominated the first day action, was held to four yesterday, with the trio of Jerome Magallanes, Wilson Rabino and Jackelyn Orig adding to their respective collection with victories in the men’s 200 breaststroke, men’s 100 free and women’s 100 butterfly, respectively.

Magallanes, who won a gold in the same event in last year’s Palarong Pambansa in Dapitan, Zamboanga, and Rabino trailed Echavez with four golds each while Dorig bagged her third gold.

“There are two more golds left to be won,” said Echavez, who competes in 400 free and 4x200-meter freestyle relay tomorrow.

Intending to shift her attention full-time to triathlon, Echavez disclosed she had decided to skip the 4x100 freestyle relay, where she won a silver in last year’s edition of the meet held in Zamboanga City.

Meanwhile, Region 7 track bet Lorna Olarita became the first double gold medalist in athletics as she ruled the women’s 400-meter run in 57.5 seconds last Monday. She had earlier won the century dash.

Ernesto Ybanez, also of Cebu, ruled the men’s 100-m dash in 11 seconds flat.

Other track and field winners were Garvin Garin of Western Visayas in the men’s high jump (1.93 meters), teammate Jaycel Casabuena in the women’s 100-meter hurdles (15.9) and  Cordillera Autonomous Region’s Cesar Castaneto in the men’s 5,000 meters (15:25.9), among others.

In baseball, Davao (Region 11) and SOCKSARGEN (Region 12) picked up their second straight triumphs yesterday by beating Northern Mindanao (Region 10), 13-2, and Central Luzon (Region 3), 3-1, respectively.

In opening football matches, top favorite Western Visayas whipped Southern Tagalog, 4-1, while Central Visayas shut out Zamboanga (Region 9), 3-0.