Lingayen, Pangasinan— Action in the 2012 Palarong Pambansa went full blast yesterday and so did Region 7’s hunt for the gold.
Unproductive in the first two days of competition where it settled for just two bronze medals, Region 7 finally got going yesterday by hauling five gold medals—two from archery, two from lawn tennis and one from arnis.
Bannered by Dumaguete City’s Marie Crizabelle Merto, the Region 7 archers were among the delegation’s most productive in last year’s Palaro.
Merto, however, was disbarred from competing this year due to a memorandum issued by the Department of Education barring national training pool members from competing in the annual meet.
With Merto out, Karl Mari, also from Dumaguete, made sure Region 7 wouldn’t miss a beat as he snagged two golds, winning the secondary boys 40m and 30m contests at the Capitol Resort archery range.
Romeo Betachi from the Labogon National High School in Mandaue City donated silver in the 40m event.
NETTERS SHINE
Also contributing big was the Region 7 netters.
First to deliver was the elementary team composed of Arthur Craig Pantino, Jan Godfrey Seno, Gener Francis Lambayan and John Clyd Laquio.
Pantino scored a default win over Region 10’s Bryan Otico in the first singles match before Seno and Laquio sealed Region 7’s golden finish with an 8-1 trashing of Matt Palasan and Emmanuel Vacalares.
The secondary team followed suit but not after getting a huge scare against their counterparts from the National Capital Region (NCR).
In the singles battle, Jude Tabotabo faltered against Andrew Joshua Cano, 1-8, that put Alexis Ondoy and Jan Reyzon Amandoron in a must-win situatin.
The duo did not disappoint as they humbled their doubles counterparts, 8-4.
After the win by Ondoy and Amandoron, the spotlight was on Fritz Satera.
Satera stepped up to the plate, crushing Lorenso Luna, 8-1, to hand the gold medal to Region 7.
“I felt the pressure at first but after I took the lead, I already knew I can handle him (Luna),” said Satera.
Satera and Luna split the first two games but the Region 7 bet cruised the rest of the way capped by two aces in the fifth game.
ARNIS GOLD
Accounting for Region 7’s fifth gold was Maximo Caballes Jr., who won the individual single weapon of the arnis secondary competition.
The 16-year-old stickfighter from University of Cebu sealed his win by tallying 92.50 points.
“I really didn’t expect to win since my counterparts from Calabazon and Western Visayas were strong,” said Ceballos, who comes from a family of stickfighters.
Ceballos, who failed to win a gold in his Palaro debut last year, said his father is a former arnis athlete while his two brothers and his three sisters are also into arnis.
In the elementary boys, Region 7’s Luke Placyd Galon settled for bronze in the individual single weapon with 44.5 points.
It was a close battle for Galon as gold winner Mark Andrew Orena and Region-4A and silver finisher John Lloyd Salazar of Region 6 barely edged him with 44.8 and 44.7 points, respectively.
In other results, swimmer Louie Birad won silver in the elementary 50m butterfly in 29.80.
The 4×50 medley relay elementary girls team comprised of Leanne Mancira, Annita Monterola, Lyh Ann Navarro and Karen Mae Indaya won bronze while the elementary boys team also snared a bronze in the 4×50 relay.
The team included Cristante Veloso, Job Vincent Aseniero, Patrick Louie Birad and Bryan Minerva.
Meanwhile, the region’s elementary girls team bagged the silver in the artistic gymnastics event topped by NCR.
As of this writing, organizers have yet to release an official rankings of the 17 competing regions.