Brittney Cañete of Ateneo de Cebu competes in secondary hurdles event of the Milo Little Olympics Visayas at the Cebu City Sports Center (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
Swimmers break six records in first day of Milo Little Olympics
Six record-breaking performances in swimming highlighted the first day of the 21st Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) yesterday.
Leading the record breakers in Day 1 was Kalibo, Aklan’s Kyla Soguilon of Sun Yat Sen School, who broke two meet records in the girls’ elementary swimming.
She first erased Lynette Ang’s 1996 record in the 50m backstroke with a time of 33.48 seconds, eclipsing the latter’s 33.81 mark. She also broke the 2014 record of Talisay City’s Raven Faith Alcoseba in the 100m butterfly event after clocking 1:14.40, which was better than the 1:15.46 of Alcoseba.
Marielle Estreba of PAREF Southcrest, also surpassed the record in the 100m butterfly by logging in 1:14.97, but she settled for silver. Estreba went on to win a single gold medal in the 400m freestyle event.
Mary Louise Lacson of La Salle Bacolod, who won four gold medals, also toppled the 2013 record of University of Cebu’s (UC) Karen Mae Indaya in the 200-meter secondary girls’ backstroke event. She logged a new record when she clocked two minutes and 40 seconds, beating Indaya’s time of 2:48.12.
She also won the 400m freestyle, 200m IM and 400m freestyle relay with her teammates.
Also logging a new record was Philippine triathlon team member Andrew Kim Remolino of the Talisay City Science National High School, who bested the 2013 Milo meet record of Jose Ereneta and Michael Ichiro Kong in the secondary boys’ 400m freestyle when he clocked 4:38.97. Kong and Ereneta’s previous record was 4:41.34.
Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu’s secondary boys swimming team also broke the 2013 record of the University of San Carlos–Basic Education (4:11.81) in the 400m freestyle relay boys secondary by clocking 4:08.00.
Despite going off to a slow start in swimming, USC-BED, the former overall champions of the meet, managed to collect four gold medals from track and field event at the CCSC.
USC-BED won the first gold medal of the meet after Howard Bon Tinga topped the elementary boys’ shot put event by throwing a distance of 7.17 meters.
Other USC-BED gold medalists were Shaula Fernelli Santiago (shot put elementary girls), Jan Dean Durano (shot put secondary boys) and Stephen Pekit-pekit (secondary boys’ high jump).
The winners in other events were Bayawan City’s John Lei Reyes and Nelson Sabate Jr. (boys elementary and secondary 400m hurdles), Ezel Divinigracia of the Iloilo National High School (400m hurdles secondary girls), and her teammate Elvy Villagoniza (secondary girls high jump).
Krystelle Leyson of Talamban Elementary School won two gold medals by topping the 400m and 110m hurdles while other gold medalists in the tracks were Basak Community School’s Winfaith Dollorte (110m hurdles elementary boys), SHS-AdC’s Shanelle Demilys Siasoyco (secondary girls shot put), Kerk Janer (elementary boys high jump) and CIT-U’s Jhaye Chariz Romero (elementary girls high jump).
In taekwondo, held at the SM Seaside City Cebu, gold medalists were Consolatrix College of Toledo City’s Michael Leo Mananquil (elementary boys category 4), Anthony Fernandez of SPED Training Center, Cadiz City (elementary boys category 1), Amethyst Jil Velasco of First Royal Academy (girls elementary category 1) and Mervonne Shayne Nicor of Cadiz East 2 (girls elementary category 4).
The arnis event, also held at the SM Seaside City Cebu, was ruled by Abellana National School in the secondary division and Cebu City Central School in the elementary division.
Organizers have yet to release the partial points standings after day 1.