ANTIQUE – High-school swimming stars Sacho Ilustre and Nicole Pamintuan helped to widen the National Capital Region's lead in the overall standings, as each collected a pair of gold medals in the opening day of aquatics competition in the Palarong Pambansa.
Ilustre, of De La Salle-Zobel, topped the secondary boys' 400m freestyle and 200m butterfly, while schoolmate and fellow UAAP MVP Pamintuan ruled the 100m backstroke and helped her team grab gold in the 200m medley relay.
Ilustre clocked 4:10.78 in freestyle to beat Christian Paul Anor of Davao Region and NCR teammate Keane Ting, who settled for silver and bronze, respectively. The graduating swimmer also broke his own butterfly record when he finished the event in 2:04.88.
Other swimming records that were broken included the secondary boys' 100m backstroke, courtesy of NCR’s Jerald Jacinto who touched the wall in 59.64 seconds. Jacinto and teammates also submitted a record time (1:52.65) in the 200m medley relay, 2 seconds faster than the previous best mark.
“Very overwhelming because lahat ng hard work namin nag-pay off na,” said Jacinto, a Grade 10 student at University of the East.
Jacinto said the Games could be draining to some athletes because some of them have to wake up early to train and swim in the scorching heat. “Sana maka-break ako ng 4 records this Palaro, mahirap iyong isang event,” Jacinto said.
The NCR tankers amassed a total of 8 gold medals on the first day of the pool competition, along with 2 silver and 5 bronze medals. The defending champions now have a 46-23-13 gold-silver-bronze medal count.
In athletics, the record in standing javelin throw (secondary girls) was also shattered after Northern Mindanao Region’s Sylvian Faith Abunda tallied 42.85 meters to erase Efrelyn Democer’s record of 42.34m. Democer settled for bronze.
Abunda dedicated her victory to her single father, Gerardo. “Inaalay ko po sa papa ko itong panalo ko. Kasi noong wala na si mama, siya na talaga nag-alaga sa akin,” the aspiring policewoman said.
The 16-year-old Bukidnon native settled for silver in shotput in last year's Palaro, but decided to shift to javelin throw this year.
In the overall medal race, Western Visayas accumulated a 10-7-8 medal tally for 2nd place, followed by Cordillera Administrative region (8-1-2), Negros Island Region (7-8-4) and Southern Tagalog (5-13-15).
Central Luzon captured its first gold in swimming through Bulacan’s 13-year-old Mico Angelo del Poso in the 50m butterfly (elementary boys), while Davao Region took home 3 gold medals, all of which came in swimming.
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