Tagle leads hot assault on national junior marks

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Dumaguete’s Naina Dominique Tagle brought her record-breaking spree from the Palarong Pambansa in Marikina City a few weeks ago to the ASEAN Youth Archery Championships in Dynamic Herb Sports Complex here where she set a new national juniors record.

The 15-year-old Silliman University student fired 639 to shatter the Under-18 women’s recurve mark of 614 set by the same person who beat her for the 70m Palarong Pambansa gold – Giuliana Venice Garcia of the National Capital Region.

It was a big jump for Tagle, whose elder sister Nicole was a former Southeast Asian Games silver winner, after she destroyed the 60m Palaro mark on her way to becoming the most bemedalled athlete in the event with a six-gold, two-silver harvest.

It was one of a multitude of national junior records established including Jonathan Reaport’s 639 that shattered the men’s U21 recurve standard of 632 he himself registered in the World Youth Championships in Limerick, Ireland just a month ago.

The SEA Games’ veteran also fell one point short of the Olympic qualifying standard. But the fact that Reaport almost reached that level meant he’s getting there and reaping the fruits of the hard labor under national coach Nino Sinco and the World Archery Philippines.

Also creating ripples were Ada Lagrada, local bet Aldrener Igot Jr., Alon Jucutan and Gwyneth Garcia in this three-day meet sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission, Cebu City government and sports commission and backed by Benel Archery, Post Science Corp., and Tangent and Fair Deal Enterprises.