GENERAL SANTOS CITY— Hometown favorite 13-year-old Christian Isaiah Lagnason set a third new meet record for himself on Day 3 of the 2025 Batang Pinoy National Championships at the Antonio Acharon Sports Complex here on Tuesday.
Lagnason’s latest record was in the 12-year-old 100-meter butterfly and came as new meet marks continued to be recognized in the Philippine Sports Commission-organized event
An eighth grader at the Shalom Crest Wizard Academy in General Santos City, Lagnason finished the event in one minute and 55/100ths of a second, improving on the clocking of 1:02.35 he set last year when the Batang Pinoy was held in Puerto Princesa.
“Maganda po ang performance ko. I felt stronger today,” said Laganson, who is coached by former age-grouper and multiple Palarong Pambansa medallist Nikita Dacera.
Lagnason was ahead of Negros Oriental’s Edward Plaza (1:08.83) and Bataan’s James de Guzman (1:02.12).
Organizers in athletics and swimming said no records were recognized in the past stagings of the Batang Pinoy, except this year because of the adjustments made in the 12-13, 14-15, and 16-17 year-old categories in swimming, and the 18-year-under in athletics.
In the previous days, Lagnason shone bright in the 200m individual medley, setting a new mark with a time of 2:19.63 and beating the previous record by Arvin Taguinota of Pasig (2:22.02) by almost three seconds.
His second record was at the 100m freestyle, with a time of 57.26 seconds.
With records now being recognized, five new marks were broken in swimming on Day 3, while two more went down in athletics.
Three archers also claimed three gold medals and became part of the most bemedalled athletes in the weeklong meet with Lagnason.
Baguio’s Jephta Caleb Fernandez and Janna Rae de los Reyes grabbed three golds each in archery’s 14-under 12-under and compound events.
And so did Cebu’s Denniel Ceballos in 12-under boys’ recurve, and the Davao City’s Abigail Lim in the girls’ 17-under compound.
In athletics, Pangasinan’s Eric Hechanova ran the men’s under-18, 5000-meter run in 15:26.75, improving on Jericho Cadag’s 16:22.32 that was achieved in 2023.
Jan Malpas of Taclobas made waves in the 11-12 year-old, boys’ freestyle, submitting a record clocking of 26.26 seconds and smashing Richard Navo of Cavite’s 26.44 seconds.
Mark Africano of the City of Cauayan clocked a 25.30, shattering the previous best of 25.68 seconds that Kevin Chan registered also last year.
Mechelle Gonato of Davao del Sur took the girls’ under-18 triple jump honors in 11.34 meters, higher than the 11.20 meters Desiree Alaba (Davao) and Alessandra Capellan (Masbate) did back in 2023 and 2004, respectively.
