DUMAGUETE City—Tagbilaran City’s Gabriel Manigque and three other swimmers swept their events, Aklan dominated the pool and Cebu City’s Rick Angelo Sotto looked poised to dominate athletics in the Batang Pinoy Games Visayas regional championships on Tuesday.
Manigque capped a fruitful campaign in style by bagging the boys 13 to 15 years old 200-meter freestyle gold medal in two minutes and .07.05 second for his fifth straight individual title at the close of the swimming competitions at the Lorenzo G. Teves Aqua Center.
Also making Bohol proud were Ange Lyn Decabo, who bagged the golds in the girls’ 13 to 15 years old 100-meter breastroke (1:23.59) and 50-meter freestyle (30.69), in the meet organized and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.
Jennuel Booh de Leon of powerhouse Aklan also scooped two gold medals in the boys 12-under in the 200-meter freestyle (2:25.46) and 200-meter butterfly race, while Bohol’s Chloe Sophia Laurente added the girls 12-under 200-meter butterfly gold (2:53.37).
“This is unbelievable. It’s like an acid test,” said Manigque, 15, a Grade 8 varsity swimmer at University of the East.
The lanky yet sturdy 6-footer could not hide his delight at the surprising outcome and vowed to train hard for next year’s Palarong Pambansa in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, after laying a big fat egg in the 2017 edition held in Antique in April.
Aklan bagged overall honors in swimming with 15 gold, 10 silver and 4 bronze medals, followed by Bacolod City (8-6-7) and Ormoc City (8-4-6).
Under the radar in the first few days of the trackfest at the Gov. Mariano Perdices Stadium, Sotto’s exploits could no longer be ignored after boosting his haul to four gold medals after topping the boys triple jump and joining Cebu City’s gold medal-winning 4×100-meter relay squad (47.3 seconds).
A Grade 7 student at the Ateneo de Cebu, Sotto admitted that he didn’t expect to win the triple jump with a leap of 13.57 meters in his sixth and final attempt.
“I was lucky because I knew my teammate Rex [Ammangpang] was stronger than me in this event,” he said.
Sotto, who also swept the boys high-jump (1.67) and long jump (6.29) crowns, aims for his fifth gold in the 4×400-meter relays today, which would make him the most outstanding athlete in track and field.
Leyte scored a golden treble, as Jayvee Alvarez and Chin Chin Alkuino swept the boys and girls 800-meter finals in times of 2:10.05 and 2:27.7, respectively, while teammate Christian Zamora topped the boys discus throw with a heave of 36 meters flat.