MANILA, Philippines - Reigning national champion Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla completed his sweep of the pistol events by bagging two gold medals in the 25-meter standard pistol competition last Sunday in the National Open shooting championships at the PSC-Marine range in Fort Bonifacio.
The 50-year-old Padilla, the country’s No. 1 pistol shooter since 1978, shot 547 points to take the individual gold, and then shared the team gold with Robert Donalvo and Enrique Gazmin by combining for 1566 points.
Padilla beat Donalvo (547) and Clarence Pukya (521) in the individual competition. Padilla’s and Donaldo’s outputs and the 482 of Tac’s protégé, Gazmin, proved too much for the other contenders.
Padilla, Donalvo and Gazmin, grandson of Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, ran away from silver medalists Carolino Gonzales, Ronald Robles and Antonio Medina, who tallied 1412, and Pukya, Jovito Teneza and Chito Clemente, who finished with 1298.
“I was happy that I achieved my goals of winning again the three pistol events. I had promised my dad (former national pistol titlist and Olympian Mariano “Tom” Ong) that I’d repeat my usual triumph in the said pistol matches,” said Padilla, general manager of their company-owned Spring Cooking Oil.
The other week, Padilla, who has dominated the local pistol competition since 1978, captured the gold medal in the center fire and his favorite rapid fire event.