New stars rise as records fall

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan ,Philippines   – The Palarong Pambansa ended yesterday with perhaps the most number of records broken in recent years.

After seven days of action, a total of 16 marks fell – seven in centerpiece athletics, including one by Palaro poster girl Maureen Emily Schrijvers of NCR, and four in swimming.

Schrijvers, a charming Phl-born Belgian-Chinese and an avid Lydia de Vega-Mercado fan, eclipsed the four-year mark of 1.61m set by Cordillera’s Marie Felice Ellago in Puerto Princesa, Palawan with her 1.62m.

She emerged the most bemedalled in athletics with five gold medals – 100m, 200m, high jump, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay – hanging from her neck.

Of course, there’s barefoot runner Joneza Mie Sustituedo of Western Visayas, who clocked 10 minutes, 34.1 seconds to rip the 10.40.6 mark in the 3,000m set by Cagayan Valley’s Mary Jane Campos in the millennium edition of the event in Bacolod.

Cagayan Valley’s Julian Fuentes, 17, also stole some of the thunder by eclipsing the decade-long 7.15m mark in secondary boys long jump set by Calabarzon’s Paulo Martinez in Naga City with a jump of 7.26m.

Although he was overshadowed by NCR’s Bianca Gotuaco’s five-gold haul, Central Visayas’ Karl Kristian Mari came through in archery where three of his four mints victories came in record fashion.

In swimming, providing the news was Delia Cordero, whose two minutes, 22.16 seconds in 200m butterfly for secondary girls destroyed the 14-year-old record of 2:26.22 owned by Althea Lim in Bacolod City

It could probably last a long time since Cordero broke the record by a whopping 10 seconds.

Cordero wound up with five but that one spectacular swim more than overshadowed the Palaro best seven golds won by teammate Axel Toni Ngui and six by another fellow Big City bet, 13-year-old Catherine Bondad’s six.