Dumaguete City— Region 7 came up with its most productive day at the most opportune time, bolstering its bid of maintaining or improving its ranking in the 2013 Palarong Pambansa, which comes to a close today, here.
Region 7, a consistent fourth-place finisher in this annual multi-sporting event, amassed nine gold medals yesterday, a harvest that could push the delegation to third place this time.
As of 8 p.m. yesterday, Region 7 had 18 golds, 18 silvers and 20 bronze medals. The ranking, however, is determined through the general championship points and not based on medald won.
In the championship general points, some events award a corresponding point from the first down to to the sixth finishers. Bigger points are given in the team events.
In the partial tally, the National Capital Region (NCR) remained at number one with 325.5 points followed by Region 6 with 189.67.
Region 7 was at third spot with 171.5 points. Coming in at fourth was Region 10 with 134.5 points followed by last year’s third placer Region 4-A with 112.5 points.
Leading the way for Region 7 yesterday were its boxers, who won all but three gold medals at stake in the sport.
Four boxers swept their championship matches with Lloyd Jabez Antoque setting the tone for the team after he beat Jimwell James Cerro of NCR, 16-11, in their 34-kilogram kids minimumweight match.
Also coming up with an easy win was Clint Gersale, who pulled off an 11-6 victory over Region 10’s Wilmore Osing in the 40-kg boys mosquitoweight battle.
Following suit was Kit Ceron Garces, who had to dig deep into his arsenal to defeat Region 9’s Erwin Jan Campaner in their 46-kg junior boys pinweight encounter.
Campaner took round one, 3-1, but Garces bounced back in the next round, 4-1. The three judges scored the final round at 2-all, giving Garces a narrow 7-6 win.
Capping Region 7’s strong showing was Junrel Jimenez, who carved out a hard-earned 10-9 win over Region 11’s John Patrick Dinolan in their 49-kg boys lightflyweight match.
Dinolan won the first round, 4-3, but gave up the second round, 3-2. Jimenez then went all out in the final round for the 10-9 triumph.
BEST OUTPUT
“This is the best performance of Region 7 in boxing,” said Dr. Vivian Ginete, executive secretary of the Central Visayas sports council. “The four gold medals will definitely help us in our campaign.”
The four gold medallists each went home with P3,000 as cash rewards.
“We really expected that our boxers will perform well. The facility at the Cebu City Sports Center really helped the boxers in their training,” said trainer Ademar Amad.
Also delivering the goods were Vicglycen Derotas and Methosellah Hoban, who teamed up to win the gold in the elementary girls chess team event. Derotas also pocketed a gold in the singles event.
The tandem of Fahd Kenneth Banico and Francisco Hidalgo had a golden finish in the elementary boys tennis team event. Nicole Yuson won the gold medal in the singles event at the expense of teammate Francisco Lambayan.
Also donating a gold was the secondary archey team of Myla Agus, Ma.Josephine Maloloy-on, Cristy Ann Comandig and Rey Ann Flores.
Region 7 is expected to add more to its harvest as it will compete in three championship games today.
The secondary boys basketball team tackles NCR, the secondary boys football goes up against Region 4-B, while the elementary girls basketball takes on Region 1.