SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique– A former sprinter from Bacolod and a cancer survivor from Cebu stole the thunder from National Capital Region bets in Day 2 of the gymnastics’ event in the 2017 Palarong Pambansa here.
Thirteen-year-old Kiana Alagaban (Negros Region) stood her ground after she, Cebu’s Daniella de la Pisa (Region 7) and Divina Sembrano (NCR) finished with three gold medals each.
The three emerged as the first triple gold medallists of the meet when action ended at the Evelio B. Javier gymnasium of the Binirayan Sports Complex here.
Alagaban, a former 100-meter sprinter from Taytung High School, unseated Metro Manila-based Breanna Labadan in the individual all-around action of the elementary girls’ event of rhythmic gymnastics.
De la Pisa, a seventh grader from the University of Visayas, beat NCR bets Divina Sembrano, Krysta Maguidato and Jhazzel Limenzon on three of four fronts. De la Pisa took the sport after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of 4, and later recovered from it.
Sembrano, drawing inspiration from the presence of a former champion now training her, first ruled the individual all-around event before anchoring NCR to the team gold of the secondary girls’ events of rhythmic gymnastics.
Then, the 13-year-old Sembrano, who is instructed by former champion Mage Wagan, and Limenzon came up with a 1-2 finish to outscore De la Pisa in the club competitions.
NCR, with Wagan, a most bemedalled athlete in 2011, as one of its trainers, still came up with the team honors in the secondary and elementary level despite the opposition they got from Negros Region and Region 7.
The Big City athletes finished with 107.5 points, while Negros Region settled for a close second with 102.08 points.
Alagaban, a seventh grader from Taytung High School in Bacolod, eased out Labadan for the gold with her tally of 39.79 in a tight contest in the individual all-around. Labadan ended up with 39.40 points.
De la Pisa now has three golds and two silvers.
She bounced back from her loss to Sembrano in the individual all-around with a 9.46 point tally in the ropes. Here, Sembrano settled for the silver with 8.87 points.
In the balls, she was ahead of Maguidato, with 9.8 points, and with foe aggregating 9.53 points.
Then, de la Pisa outworked Sembrano, 9.73-9.05, for hoops gold. In the clubs, Sembrano had 9.78, followed by Limenzon (9.41) and de la Pisa (8.82).
Meanwhile, four gold medals will be at stake in the secondary division while three will be disputed in the elementary action when athletics fires off at the newly renovated Binirayan Sports Complex oval.
Davoena Mea Gey Ninura, who came up with one of the most memorable performances last year, will definitely be back to defend the secondary girls’ 3000-meter run honors against old rival Jie Anna Calis and fight it out for the gold medal again.
Seven medals that will be up for grabs and this includes javelin throw, secondary boys’ long jump, the secondary boys’ javelin throw, elementary girls’ shot put, elementary boys’ triple jump and elementary boys’ shot put.