Balamban, Cebu – With two more days of competition, the Cebu City Ninos continues to dominate the 2015 Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) regional meet with 50 gold medals, 49 silvers and 36 bronzes in this southwest town, a little more than an hour’s drive from Cebu City.
However, Mandaue City, which has continued its strong campaign, is nipping at the Ninos’ heels by being just nine gilts adrift with its medal haul of 41-15-16 while Talisay City is currently in third place with 20-11-15.
The bulk of Cebu City’s medal haul is contributed by its secondary athletes that allowed the Ninos to top the swimming event which came to an end last Friday at the Aquatic Center of the Cebu City Sports Center.
The Ninos dominated the swimming event with a total of 25 golds, 16 silvers and 12 bronzes. All but one of its gilts was contributed by its secondary tankers.
Talisay City came in at second with 18-11-11 with its elementary contributing all the gilts except for one. Mandaue finished third with 10-6-6.
Cebu City’s golden performance in the pool was led by Michael Ichiro Kong who won in all of his events including two relays. It was a fitting present for Kong who also celebrated his birthday last Friday.
Talisay, on the other hand, has Psalm Deniel Aquino to thank for as he contributed a total of five individual medals.
Aside from the tankers, the jins also padded Cebu City’s lead with seven gold medals, one silver and six bronze medals.
Accounting for the gilts were its elementary jins—Charles Laurence Labiste, Althea Rosel, Mary Jocelyn Syllanto and Anne Sharmain Albaracin while its secondary jins—Lorelee Natividad, Micah Marie Mission and Zozen Prajes added a gold each.
The Ninos other gilts came from athletics and archery.
Paul Ian Gorgonio of the University of San Carlos added to the Ninos’ gilt yesterday after finishing the secondary boys 200-meter run in 23:59.
Other gilt contributors were Kenji Dahili and Samanthan Gem Limos in the 200-m run, Jhuvan Jehn Baculot in the secondary girls’ triple jump.
Mandaue’s campaign, on the other hand, was bolstered by the 20 gold medals it clinched in the arnis events.
Roel John Segarra handed in four golds in the secondary boys.
Others who gave a golden performace were Aljon Lindajao and Cherry Mae Enguito in the secondary division while contributors in the elementary division were Christian Dungog and Michelle Tumulak, who had three gilts apiece.
Mandaue also gets a chance to defend its title in the secondary boys basketball after advancing to today’s semifinals along with Cebu City.
Mandaue grabbed its semifinals ticket via a 119-42 win over Negros Oriental while Cebu City advanced with a 101-53 dismantling of Negros Oriental.
Both delegations have also advanced to the quarterfinals of football along with Dumaguete, Bohol, Cebu Province, Negros Oriental, Lapu-Lapu City and Bayawan.
The Mandaue football team manned by booters from the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) and Canduman National High School, grabbed a quarterfinals ticket with an impressive 11-0 annihilation of Carcar City.
SHS-AdC’s Kintaro Miyagi, a former national junior team member, scored a hattrick as well as Canduman’s Joseph Caderao. Others who found the back of the net for Mandaue were Bertram Musni, Baris Tasci, Leo Maquiling, Jose Mari Kwan and Matthew Pardis.
Cebu City, on the other hand, advanced via a 9-0 routing of Tagbilaran City.
In today’s quarterfinals, one of the most anticipated match will be against Mandaue and Cebu Province manned by booters from Alcoy.
The Magis Eagles and Alcoy booters figured in a free-for-all brawl in last year’s Aboitiz Football Cup. Both sides, however, have made moves to ammend the incident.
Other quarterfinal matches will be between Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City, Dumaguete and Bayawan, and Bohol and Negros Oriental.
