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By Frank Calapre,
Correspondent
VIGAN CITY: Powerhouse Pangasinan
reaffirmed its dominance in athletics by capturing four gold medals
Tuesday at the start of the 2nd Philippine Olympic Festival
Central/Northern/Cordillera Qualifying Games at the Quirino
Grandstand here.
Baguio City managed to sneak in
the event as 18-year-old Cesar Castaneto, a first year Bachelor of
Science Education student of University of Cordillera, ruled the
5,000-m run for boys in 17:50.4 minutes to capture their first gold
in the week-long multievent meet.
But Pangasinan, the reigning
IRAA athletics champion, ruled the next four events courtesy of
Lanie Cardona in the girls 3,000-m run with a time of 12: 08.3 and
Rochille Corpuz, who dominated the girls long jump with a leap of
5.10 meters.
“This is my first big win, but
this is also enough to gauge my training for the forthcoming
Palarong Pambansa in Koronadal, South Cotabato, next month, where I
will be participating for the first time,” said the petite
4-feet-11 Cardona, a fourth year high school graduate of Pilar High
School in Bolinao, Pangasinan.
Pangasinan athletics head coach
Marcelino Dona of Virgin Melagrosa University Foundation in San
Carlos City likened Cardona to Southeast Asian Games medalist
Eduardo Buenavista.
“Just like Buenavista, this new
prospect [Cardona] is just small girl, but she has got the power and
endurance and for a long distance runner you don’t have to be that
tall, “ said Dona, who will be the new coach of Cardona in the
VMUF this coming June.
Cardona will be taking BS
Education at the VMUF to pursue her goal to become a member of the
national training pool and eventually represent the country in
international meets in the future.
Only two runners saw action in
the girls 3,000-m run, the other was Vanessa Membrado also of
Pangasinan, who timed 13:07.1.
Besides Cardona and Corpuz, other
winners for Pangasinan were Maria Theresa Caaya in the girls discus
throw with a heave of 26.23 meters and Joebert Maraya in the boys
110-m hurdles with a clocking of 16.1 seconds.
Philippine Track and Field
Association secretary-general Benjamin Silva-Netto said that they
have to cancel three events in athletics due to lack of entries from
the 22 local governments participating.
Silva-Netto mentioned
steeplechase, decathlon and polevault were among those that have
been scrapped from the list in the multievent athletics.
Pangasinan could have make it
five golds but hurdler Michelle Damiano fell in the last 20 meters
allowing Ronilyn Santiago of Baguio City to win the girls 100-m
hurdles event with a time of 18.2 seconds late in the
afternoon.
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