LEGAZPI City, Albay—A pair of gold medals landed in the hands of swimmer Maurice Sacho Ilustre, who broke another record and became the most bemedalled athlete after Day 4 of the 2016 Palarong Pambansa here.
First, he snagged the gold in the secondary boys’ 100-meter butterfly action in 58.04 seconds, with Andrae Pogiongko as his pacer at the poolside of the Bicol University-Albay Sports and Cultural Complex.
Then, as third swimmer of the National Capital Region team, he helped the Big City bets clock 1:41.45 in the 4×50 meter freestyle for his second gold for the day and fifth overall. Their clocking broke the year-old mark of the Calabarzon team (1:42.11).
Ilustre is expected to grab two more on the final day in an effort to become the meet’s Most Valuable Player for another year.
“Yes, I’m on target. I’m at my peak, and there’s two more,” said Ilustre.
Meanwhile, Henry Dagmil is finally reaping the fruits of his labor. This time, not as an athlete, but as a coach.
The retired national athlete has encouraged seven kids to carry Region 12 to three golds, three silvers and two bronzes in the secondary and elementary division of the athletics competitions.
“Masaya ako dahil nakita ko ang improvements ng isang region, at hindi lang sa Manila. Na-adopt na nila ang technology sa paghahanda sa competition,” said Dagmil, who moved back to South Cotabato with his family after he retired from the national team last year as a long-jump specialist.
Overall, Region 12 now has five golds, three silvers, and nine medals, a big improvement after their athletes got only one silver during the annual meet in Tagum last year.
Their two other golds came from James Michael Exclamador, who topped the 60m and 50 m distances with scores of 323 and 310.
Feberoy Kasi, the son of a habal-habal driver in T’boli, South Cotabato, led Region 12’s charge when he clocked a hand-timed 10.74 seconds on Wednesday in the 100-meter dash.
It could have been considered a new course record after it surpassed Jomar Udtohan’s old time of 10.8. But track officials said the electronic timing device was not working properly the moment Kasi crossed the finish line.
So timing officials considered rounding off the hand-timed result. As a result, Kasi ended up matching Udtohan’s clocking, which he established in 2014.
If the electronic result was considered, meet official Claro Pellosis felt that it would equaled the national junior mark of Daniel Noval in 2014.
Tenth grader Marjun Sulleza of Koronadal City contributed a gold in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 16.4 seconds, and he was close to Patrick Unso’s record (54.1 seconds) when he made it in 54.5 seconds.
Sulleza took a silver in the 400-meter run in 50.06 seconds, with Ilonggo bet Jan Vincent Alejandro taking the gold in 49.59 seconds.
Trisha Aranador, 12, took the elementary girls’ 100-m hurdles honors in 17.02 seconds, which is 8/10ths of a second close to the meet record.
Meanwhile, Ludovice de la Cruz bucked an ankle injury, is now close to the meet record in the secondary boys’ 100-meter hurdles after taking the gold in 14.99 seconds for Region 1.
James Darrel Oduna claimed the 5000-meter run gold in 15 minutes, 55.79 seconds while Yllana Sulit of Region 3 took the gold in the elementary girls high jump.
