Cebu Citty — Mico Villaran emerged as one of the most bemedalled tracksters at the end of the athletics’ meet of the 2024 Palarong Pambansa at the Cebu City Sports Center here.
But one of the two course records that he and his teammates set won’t be recognized since the oval fell short of the standard 400-meter distance that it was supposed to have.
“Record na iyun. Sayang din at hindi na rin record. Pangalan mo na lang ang ilalagay,” said the 16-year-old Villaran after he and his teammates led Region 6 to a final gold medal in the 4×100-meter relays.
Villaran, along with teammates Kent Burdan, John Yu and Sam Bantillo finished in 42.20 seconds, smashing the old time of the Veruel Verdadero-led Southern Tagalog squad at 42.48 seconds set back in 2017.
Region IV-A, anchored by Carl Nacario, settled for the silver in 42.6 seconds, followed by the National Capital Region at 42.71.
Villaran’s clocking of 14.53 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles got the needed recognition after authorities said that course marks that were broken below the 200-meter distance will be validated.
His gold-winning performance shattered Patrick Unso’s 14-year-old feat of 14.68 seconds.
A total of three record-breaking performances were not recognized over the last two days, including Nacario’s 4×400-meter relay team’s 3:20.81, which surpassed Al-Rhyan Labita’s Region IV-A’s winning time of 3:21.66 in 2019.
Also unrecognized was the “record” by Ayena Cabalfin’s Region 6 team in the elementary girls’ 4×400-meter relay finals at 4:12.33, which went past Region IV-A’s 4:12.62 in 2016.
NCR formally took the overall overall championship with 98 golds, 66 silvers and 74 bronze medals, followed by Region IV-A (Calabarzon) with its 57-51-53 gold-silver-bronze haul.
Region VI (Western Visayas) trails at 56-41-41, followed by Region XI (Davao) at 32-25-25.
Authorities from both the Department Education and the Cebu City Sports Commission revealed various discrepancies in the eight lanes following a re-measurement, with lane 1 short of 1.5 meters.
CCSC chairman John Pages disclosed that the linings in lanes 2, and 4 were short by 0.79, lane 5 by 0.76, 6 by 0.75, 7 by 0.70, and 8 by 0.96.
Deped assistant secretary Francis Cesar Bringas said that despite the situation involving the oval and record-breaking performances, the athletes’ concerned will still receive their medals and incentives.
Albert Jose Amaro became the most productive gold medallist with a total of seven mints in the secondary boys’ swimming.
