BAGUIO CITY—Camarines Sur’s Mary Grace Joson won the first gold medal in girls’ discus throw of the Batang Pinoy National Finals on Monday, dedicating her victory to a father she has not seen since birth.
And while Joson made an emotional impact in the games that proves the host city’s resiliency despite suffering much of Typhoon Ompong’s wrath, Jason Jabol and Antonette Jay Aguilion crowned themselves as the Sprint Prince and Princess, respectively.
Joson heaved the discus to 26.87 meters in her second attempt to win the gold, barely beating Zambales’s Janine Medina (26.64 meters) and General Santos City’s Althea Guadalupe.
“This is for my parents, especially to papa,” said Joson, a Grade 9 student at the Camarines Sur Sports Academy.
The 15-year-old Joson has never seen his Civil Engineer dad who is based abroad and lives with her mother, who earns a living vending balut.
The sun shone brightly at the Baguio Athletic Bowl to the relief of the people up north who braved Ompong’s rains and winds last Saturday that almost cost the cancelation of the games, one of the Philippine Sports’ Commission’s flag-ship programs for grassroots sports.
Jabol, meanwhile, made Dasmariñas City proud by winning the secondary boys’ 100 meters in 11.59 seconds, with the 10th-grader at the Immaculate Concepcion Academy showing his hamstring injury that forced him out of last summer’s Athletics Open in Isabela has fully healed.
Claveland Joel Mallari of Makati City (11.84 seconds) and Albort Joses Villaces of Zamboanga City (11.96 seconds) took the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Bacolod City’s Aguilion, on the other hand, bucked homesickness and won gold in the girls’ 100 meters with a time of 13.2 second. She won by a hair over Bohol’s Dianna Rysiamie Hurano (13.22). Leyte’s Shane Avryl completed the podium with 13.32 seconds.
So who said it’s never fun taking a dip in Baguio City’s weather? Not the swimmers who conquered the chilly water of the Baguio Swimming Pool.
Roz Ciaralene Encarnacion, Markus Johannes de Kam, Mervien Jules Mirandilla and Althea Michel Baluyot collected two gold medals each to jump-start competitions in the medal-rich sport.
Laguna’s Encarnacion topped the girls 200-meter individual medley in 2:40.97, with Maglia Jaye (2:44.58) of Puerto Princesa City and Chloe Sophia Laurente (2:47.01) of Ormoc City finishing behind her.
Officials, meanwhile, took time to determine the result of the girls 50-meter breaststroke. Encarnacion clocked 37.33 seconds, beating Dumaguete City’s Monique Ramas-Uypitching by .02 second. Angela Mikaela Talosig clinched the bronze medal in 37.36.
Lucena City’s De Kam topped the boys’ 12-under 100-meter freestyle (59.11 seconds) and 50-meter backstroke (32.27 seconds), while his teammate, Mirandilla, ruled the boys 13-15 100-meter freestyle (58.38 seconds) and 100-meter butterfly (59.92 seconds).
Quezon City’s Baluyot of stamped her class in the girls 13-15 100-meter freestyle (1:01.16) and 100-meter butterfly (1:06.98).