SAN JOSE de Buenavista, Antique—New records continued to be set in the Palarong Pambansa here.
A team of record breakers didn’t mind the fading sunlight when they smashed the 4×100 meter medley relay meet mark by almost six seconds in the swimming meet of the 2017 Palarong Pambansa at the Binirayan Sports Complex here.
Maurice Sacho Ilustre anchored NCR to an amazing 4 minutes, and 1.16 seconds clocking, smashing the two-year record that he and his teammates set back in 2015.
University of the East’s Jerald Jacinto and University of the Philippines Integrated School tanker Drew Magbag were the new faces that were with Ilustre and Andrei Pogiongko in resetting their old clocking of 4:07.00.
For Magbag, it was his second record-breaking feat for the day after he earlier beat teammate Mark Rotoni’s preliminary feat of 2:28.85 with a better 2:28.28 showing in the secondary boys’ 200-meter breaststroke.
Both Magbag and Rotoni erased the previous record set by their coach Rafael Chua of 2:30.42 back in 1998. Rotoni settled for the silver behind Magbag in the finals.
Ilustre now has four golds after he broke the year-old 54.15-second course mark with an improved 52.97 second clocking in the 100m freestyle.
“These guys swam together for the first time. They needed time to adjust,” said their coach Gavino Roxas after the foursome notched 4:07.51 in the preliminaries.
Nicole Pamintuan and Bela Magtibay also claimed record-breaking times for NCR in the 200-meter individual medley and the 200-m breaststroke events of the secondary girls.
Meanwhile, Kate Julienne Martinez of Negros Region and Ana Marie Eugenio of Region 1 set new records in athletics.
Martinez, who is from Bago City, had 35.56 meters on her last attempt in the elementary girls’ discus throw for a new record after seven years.
“Nag-focus lang po ako, at binilisan ko lang po iyung bato,” said the 5’2” Martinez, who erased Western Visayas bet Maika de Oro’s best heave of 33.07 meters back in 2007.
On the other hand, Eugenio ran barefoot and reached the finish line of the elementary girls’ 400-meter hurdles in 1:08.03, surpassing the 1:08.6 performance of Northern Mindanao’s Junelou Cabal in 1998.
Their record-breaking efforts came as Dasmarinas, Cavite bet Veruel Verdadero and Leyte Sports Academy scholar Bianca Jane Combate emerged as the fastest runners of the games when they conquered the secondary boys’ and girls’ 100-meter sprints, respectively.
Verdadero, who recently conquered the Batang Pinoy and was the lone gold medallist in the Southeast Youth Championships, took boys’ century run in 10.87, with John Carlo Yuson (Region 2) in second (10.91).
Combate, who is from Bato, Leyte, beat Region IV-A Eliza Cuyom and defending champion Samantha Limos of Cebu in 12.38 seconds.
Eugenio, an Alaminos, Pangasinan sixth grader wasn’t used to wearing rubber shoes during competition. Still, she kept a comfortable pace when she beat Region 11’s Merry Joy Tero, who checked in a 1:08.75.