Ronette Ayuda of Cebu City is a gold medal winner in high jump. She dedicated her victory yesterday to her father, Rommel. / Tonee Despojo
Cebu City’s first gold medalist in PNG dedicates success to hardworking father
Cebu City’s first gold medalist in the Philippine National Games 2018 Ronette Ayuda has trained hard to be a strong contender in high jump competition.
This trait she must have taken from her father, Rommel, who raised her and her sister singlehandedly since 2010.
So it was just fitting enough that the 21-year-old Ayuda dedicated the gold medal she won in women’s high jump yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center to her father.
“Pa, this is for all your hard work and sacrifices,” the teary-eyed Ayuda said after winning the gold. “You even sacrificed sleeping at night just so you could work. This gold medal is for you.”
Ayuda bagged Cebu City’s first gold medal in the meet here in Cebu after posting 1.50-meter mark at the start of the athletics competition yesterday.
Technically, the first gold medal for team Cebu City in the meet was bagged last week by Daniela dela Pisa in gymnastics, which was held in Manila for lack of international standard facilities here. But Ayuda’s gold is the first for Cebu City since the official opening of the meet here on Saturday.
“I did not expect this because it is my first time to compete in the PNG and there are a lot of strong contenders,” said Ayuda, who has not had proper training for this weeklong multi-sporting because of asthma attacks just days before the competition.
But all the hard work she put all throughout her athletic career helped her get through. This part she can liken to her father’s sacrifices for the family.
According to the University of San Carlos (USC) student from Liloan town, northern Cebu, her father had to juggle three jobs to make ends meet for them after their mother succumbed to cancer in 2010.
As a job order employee of the municipality of Liloan, he cleans the slaughterhouse, sprays fertilizer as a mango farmhand and drives a motorcycle-for-hire.
Ayuda decided to help her father by trying to get a collegiate scholarship through sports. She started as a volleyball player for two years and a half then shifted to athletics after that.
Ironically, her father did not support her athletics bid because he did not believe that it could help them get through school.
However, when she got accepted at USC, it was then that her father started believing in her ability and finally gave her and her younger sister, who is now following in her footsteps, his full support.
Because she started late in athletics, Ayuda was never able to compete in the Palarong Pambansa because she never got past the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association Meet, which is the qualifying meet for the national multi-sporting event.
However, Ayuda has been successful in the regional and national competitions of the Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA).
Ayuda, who will be graduating in December from the course of Education Major in Physical Education, just came from winning gold in the senior women’s 100m hurdle in the National PRISAA Games 2018 held last month in Bohol. She also bagged the gold in the senior women’s high jump in last year’s edition of the competition held in Zambales.
Ayuda admitted that she was really looking forward to competing in the PNG as it is a prestigious event and will give her a chance to be part of the national team.
If given an opportunity to train for the national team, Ayuda said that she would grab it.