The Central Visayas’ gold medal match versus NCR in the secondary girls basketball of Palarong Pambansa 2024. | CDN Digital photo / Christian Dave Cuizon
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The host delegation, Central Visayas, has officially bested its 2023 Palarong Pambansa final medal count after nabbing 28 gold medals in the penultimate of this national meet on Monday, July 15.
As of 8 p.m. on Monday, Central Visayas collected a total of 28 gold medals, 40 silvers, and 36 bronzes, eclipsing its 26-18-35 (gold-silver-bronze) medal count in last year’s Palarong Pambansa in Marikina City.
However, there is a huge caveat.
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Central Visayas remained stuck in the fifth overall place in the medal rankings as of Monday.
Meanwhile, perennial champion, the National Capital Region virtually rules the entire meet after amassing a 95-66-74 medal count. At the same time, Calabarzon (Region IV-A) comes in second with its 57-48-52 tally, and Western Visayas (Region 6) ranked third with a 54-39-40 medal tally.
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NCR will likely retain its title as the official Palarong Pambansa website already tallied 96.20 percent of all the gold medals that were at stake in the meet.
Surprisingly, last year’s overall sixth placer, Davao Region (Region 11) dislodged Central Visayas after the latter held the fourth spot in the medal rankings for two days. Davao Region has a 32-25-35 medal count as of Monday evening.
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Medal surge
Central Visayas will most likely end as the fifth overall placer despite the gold medal surge.
The host delegation headed by its Dumagueteño archers added two more gold medals to their haul after Naina Dominique Tagle topped the archery the individual Olympic round event at the South Road Properties (SRP). On top of that Tagle resets her personal best in the 60-meter event.
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In total, Tagle harvested four gold medals in the archery event for Central Visayas.
Joining her in adding a gold medal for the region was its secondary girls team which ruled the Team Olympic round secondary boys. The team was comprised of Davayn Philip Mason, Ralph Ivoh Perocho, and Marco Angelo Villanueva.
Also winning a gold medal was Catmon Integrated School’s secondary girls 3×3 squad comprised of Shairame Armecin, Stephanie Paden, Sofia Alexis Petalcorin, and Jeanelmae Pontillas. They defeated NCR, 12-11, in the gold medal match at the Hoops Dome in Lapu-Lapu City.
Boxing event
Lastly, AJ Basalo of Talisay City and Cebu City’s Cris Ivhan Espina dominated their respective weight classes in the boxing event.
Basalo won a split decision against Region 11’s Miguelito Bantilan Jr. in the light bantamweight junior class. Espina defeated Region 12’s John Elmer Napoles in the light flyweight school boys category via decision.
Central Visayas still has a hope to prevent itself from a gold medal shutout in the ball games. This as the Palarong Pambansa gold medalist in elementary football, the Don Bosco Technical College (DBTC) Greywolves, will play in the gold medal round against Calabarzon at the Dynamic Herb-Borromeo Sports Complex at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.
All of Central Visayas’ bets in the ball games from its elementary and secondary volleyball, basketball 5-on-5, sepak takraw, softball, and baseball, failed to secure a gold medal.