Athletes from Mindanao dominated combat sports, with Northern Mindanao Region collecting four of 10 gold medals at the close of the 2019 Palarong Pambansa boxing competitions at the Almendras gymnasium in Davao City.
Their big share of medals came from Aaron Bado, Sunrise Seronoy, Mark Durens and John Palivino in the lightflyweight, the bantamweight, the lightweight and the featherweight categories.
Bado fought off John Vicera of Region IV-A for the gold in the 14 to 16-year-old bracket of the light-flyweight finals.
Seronay prevailed over Shane Pantaleon of Region V for the 14 to 16-year-old bantamweight honors, while Durens downed Mark Solano (Region 12) in the 17 to 18-year-old, lightweight side.
In the featherweight finals, Palivino finished off Joseph Sumabong (Region 7) in ruling the 48-52 kg class.
Socsargen, or Region XII, ruled the arnis competitions, by snaring 15 gold along with nine silver and a bronze. They earned seven golds from 11 categories in the secondary girls’ division.
Shena Valdez claimed three golds, first by outpointing Bicol’s Lovely Tawingan in the anyo individual single weapons event with 29.2 points.
Then she outscored Roselle de Leon (Western Visayas) with 29 points in the double weapons section.
Valdez prevailed over Tawingan for a second time in taking the espada y daga honors.