Davao City—Twelve-year-old Alexie Cabayaran, who battled asthma by taking up swimming, emerged as one of four standouts who shone at the start of the swimming meet of the 2019 Palarong Pambansa at the partially completed University the Philippines-Davao Aquatics Center in Mintal here.
Cabayaran smashed a five-year-old mark and started off an ambitious campaign on a bright note as she joined bids by Marc Dula, Camille Buico and Xiandi Chua to become the most bemedalled athletes of the weeklong meet.
The 6th grader from Mambulac Elementary School in Silay City, clocked two minutes and 15.76 seconds to claim the gold medal in the elementary girls’ 200-meter freestyle, outpacing teammate Aliah Lopez and Region IV-A’s Gabriel Marie Sapinit.
Cabayaran erased the existing 2:16.72 mark after she went past the clocking of Imee Joyce Saavedra.
Taking up swimming to deal with her asthma, Cabayaran later ended up handing Region 6 two gold medals after snaring the gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke as well.
“Sabi ni coach, go all out. I went all out,“ said Cabayaran, who made a big push for a quick and short burst of speed in the last meters.
Cabayaran is one of three swimmers expected to go for at least six medals here, after Buico and Dula made their presence felt during the day.
At least four more events await Cabayaran, who won seven golds in the in the regionals. If she hits her target, she could equal last year’s effort of Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh, who claimed six golds and a silver medal in dominating the elementary girls’ division.
This time in the secondary division, Buico, a 10th grader at the University of Santo Tomas, used her experience to outsprint Mojdeh in the fight for the gold in the girls’ 50-meter butterfly action, which is being held for the first time.
Checking in at 29.06 seconds allowed Buico to secure the gold over Mojdeh, who timed in at 29.54 seconds.
“It was more about experience. I just hyped myself,” said the 15-year-old Buico, who is seeking a slot to the national team that’s being assembled for the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Dula handed the National Capital Region is first gold with a 29.67-second clocking in elementary boys’ 50-meter butterfly after beating Region V’s John Pesimo.
It was Dula’s first gold and definitely not his last as he is going for the mints in the 100-meter backstroke, the 100-meter butterfly, the 50-meter backstroke, the 50-meter freestyle and two relay events.
Chua, a 12th grader at the Immaculate Conception Academy, is starting off her campaign in the secondary girls’ action today in the 200-meter backstroke and the 200-m individual medley, and she is also in the 200-meter backstroke, the 200-meter freestyle and 400-meter IM.
In athletics, two meet marks fell after Algin Gomez of Region 2, claimed his second gold medal in the secondary boys’ triple jump after outperforming Region 10’s John Mike Lera for the second time as well.
Trexie de la Torre (Western Visayas) smashed the secondary girls’ triple jump mark of Maricel Sibug (Northern Mindanao) of 5.56 after clearing 5.84 meters.
Jamela de Asis of Region VI heaved 12.3 meters in secondary girls’ shotput to get past the year-old 11.88-meter heave of Kassandra Alcantara (NCR) last year.
Alfrence Braza added another gold for Western Visayas in the secondary boys’ 5,000meters, with Jasper Delfin (Bicol) and Ritchie Estampador (Western Visayas), settling for the silver and bronze, respectively.
In secondary boys’ taekwondo, Region 1’s Jaime Oranza claime the individual A honors, with Rovie Nitre(ARMM) and King Alcasio (IV-A) taking the silver and bronze in poomsae.
Ceanne Rosquillo (Region VI) claimed the individual B gold.