Baguio City bets top Batang Pinoy

ILOILO CITY , Philippines  – Baguio City, leaning on the seven-gold harvest by archer Kareel Meer Hongitan, bagged the overall championship in the Philippine Sports Commission-Batang Pinoy 2012 National Finals with a 54-32-37 (gold-silver-bronze) haul at the Iloilo Sports Complex here.

Hongitan’s spectacular showing in archery along with his teammates’ victories in combat sports like wushu (12), wrestling (11), taekwondo (8) and arnis (4) helped propel Baguio City to the top of the heap at the close of the event reduced to a three-day meet due to Typhoon Pablo.

It was an impressive performance by Baguio, which also made the most of its high-altitude training to achieve what it had failed to do last year when it lost a close overall title race to Laguna in Naga.

Cebu, banking on its victories in dance sports, wound up second with a 35-26-21 take. The Cebuanos also reigned in lawn tennis courtesy of Jana Pages, who hacked out a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Melanie Faye Dizon, and Jan Godfrey Seno, who downed Christophber Encarnacion, 6-1, 6-3, in the finals of the girls’ and boys’ divisions, respectively.

Quezon City finished third among the 135 local government units that took part, winning 28 golds, 21 silver medals and 47 bronzes.

The bulk of QC’s wins came in swimming where it harvested 16 on victories by Raissa Regata Gavino, Kirsten Chloe Daos and Jeremy Brian Lim.

Quezon City also bagged seven golds in wrestling.

Manila, a powerhouse in previous Batang Pinoy editions, ended up a disappointing fourth with 20-20-15 tally, including 10 from swimming, while Laguna ended up fifth with 18-24-25.

Host Iloilo City bagged 13 golds, 14 silvers and 20 bronze medals, anchoring its campaign on pencak silat which produced 13 golds. Iloilo Province finished with 8-12-11 medal tally.

Nueva Ecjia’s Atanacio Pellicer also shared the spotlight as he emerged the winningest athlete with eight gold medals while 15-year old Mary Anthony Diesto of Bacolod City, one of the 11 most outstanding athletes selected in the Batang Pinoy finals last year in Naga City, had the most number of gold medals won in one event – four in athletics.