Villa’s 2nd gold from boys 50-m event prevents Region 7 from gold shutout
Central Visayas’ Randall Iverson Dela Pisa performs his vault routine during the elementary boys artistic gymnastics competition of the Palarong Pambansa 2014.
(CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)
Sta. Cruz, Laguna— Cebuano archer Vincent Villa was on a tear at the Archery, Pistol and Rifle Firing Range of the Laguna Sports Complex yesterday. The only thing that stopped the onslaught was the thick smoke that emitted from a nearby dumpsite slowing down the asthmatic neophyte archer.
Villa, 16, snagged his second gold medal in the 2014 Palarong Pambansa by dominating the secondary boys 50-meter event, saving the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) from a gold medal shutout in the fourth day of competition.
Going into today’s competition, Cviraa faces an uphill climb of retaining or improving its third place finish last year.
As of 10:02 last night, official results show Cviraa at seventh place with seven golds, 11 silvers and 10 bronzes, trailing Region 10, which had a 7-11-11 tally.
Well ahead of the pack was defending champion National Capitol Region (NCR) with 37 golds, 30 silvers and 26 bronzes followed by Region 4-1 with a 16-18-21 tally.
At third was Region 6 with a 15-11-15 haul while taking the fourth spot was CARAA with 13 golds, eight silvers and nine bronzes. Region 12 is in fifth spot with a 9-9-10 harvest.
VILLA’S MOMENT
Before winning the 50-meter contest, Villa figured in a tight battle with Quint Abeijah Amongan of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in the 40-meter after both scored 317 points, paving the way for a shoot-off where Amongan hit the bulls eye and edged out Villa, 10-9.
That didn’t demorallize Villa, who bagged the 50-meter gold with 324 points. It was a one-two finish for Cviraa with Junmar Junas winning silver with 320 points.
Villa was hitting well in the 60-meter event when smoke started to engulf the range.
“He was breathing heavily because of the smoke. It really distracted him,” said Villa’s father Donato. The Villas are from barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City.
“You cannot see the target face anymore because of the smoke,” said Donato.
Tension flared when some NCR parents requested to postpone the event due to poor visibility. “We opposed because they requested to have the event postponed after Vincent had taken his shots despite of the thick smoke,” said Donato.
Parents argued with the officials, who eventually called off the contest.
“There is actually a rule that the match will be only be called off because of typhoon or heavy rains with lightning,” Donato said.
Vincent could land in the top three in the 60-meter event and had an inside track of copping the Fita title. The archer who garners the highest combined points from the three distances will win the Fita.
Vincent of Maria Montessori International is in the Palaro as a replacement after an original member of the team backed off. Contributing silver yesterday was the girls secondary tennis team, which lost to Region 11 in their championship match, 1-2. Also chipping in silver was the secondary boys table tennis team.
Diana Oliveros of Central Visayas makes a serve during the secondary girls table tennis. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)
The boys secondary tennis and table tennis teams settled for bronze.
Randy Familiar settled for bronze in the individual all-around, floor and vault exercises of the elementary Men’s Artistic Gymnastics.