Cebu City adds 3 golds

Christian Catingub, Rue Pabuaya win gold in weightlifting; Diego Claro tops blitz chess in PNG

AFTER winning five gold medals the other day, Cebu City athletes added three more gold medals yesterday in the Philippine National Games.

Christian Catingub won one gold, one silver and one bronze medal, while Rue Collen Pabuaya got one gold medal in the secondary division. She also won one silver medal in the youth division in weightlifting.

Their feat came after Kelle Kay Rojas and Clark Cuico set a record and won two gold medals each also in weightlifting, while Angelica Lado contributed one.

In chess, UC’s Diego Abraham Claro brought home the gold medal in the blitz event of the junior Boys Division.

Claro, who started at 16th place, secured the title after round 6 and despite losing his seventh round match to Christian Nanola.

Claro finished with 5.5 points along with Jose Castro, but the Cebuano chess whiz won the gold via tiebreak.

Claro opened the tournament by drawing with fellow Cebuano Felix Shaun Balbona before scoring five consecutive wins over John Marvin Miciano, Tristan Cervero, top seed Marc Christian Nazario, Castro and Jaymarc Gutierrez.

Balbona, of the University of San Carlos-Basic Education Department, lost the bronze medal to Nanola via tie-break points. However, he is leading in the classic chess event.

Balbona is in the lead after four rounds with 3.5 points and is followed by Gutierrez, Nanola and Castro, who all had 3.0 points.

In the Open Category, Cebuano Eden Diano is slowly catching up with the top contenders as he moved half a point behind early leaders, GM Mark Paragua, IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia and Fide Master Mari Joseph Turqueza, who got perfect scores after four rounds.

Quick finish

In cycling, it took only 49 seconds for Cebu City to bag its first medal at the Amoranto Velodrome.

Ana Patricia “Icamax” Maximo, 13, won a silver medal in the 500m Individual Time Trial (ITT) Women Juniors with a time of 49.52 seconds, becoming the youngest medal winner in track cycling.

“I did not expect I can win since this is my first try. When my dad told me I would be rac- ing for Cebu City I got scared. I thought it was just an ordinary race,” said Maximo, an incoming Grade 8 student of Sacred Heart School - Hijas de Jesus.

Maximo trailed Avegail Benosa of Bicol (48.73), while Mary Monton of NCR got the bronze medal in 52.16 seconds.

Meanwhile, Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) president Gener Dungo will name the winners in the beach volleyball competition of the PNG as the new members of the national team.

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) beach volleyball consultant Eric Lecain said that was the decision after the PVF board meeting last Thursday.

Earlier, PSC chairman Richie Garcia said the winners in the PNG will automatically fill in the empty slots of the beach volley national teams. However, Dungog earlier decided that instead of getting the slots, the winners would only be among those who will be considered for the national team.

The beach volleyball national team was disbanded after last year’s PNG, which featured an all-Cebu finals between Jonrey Sasing and Edward Ybañez and Mike Abria and Jade Becaldo. Lecain also lauded the decision. “Getting in the national team would be the best award this competition can give the winners,” Lecain said.

Sasing and Ybañez beat University of Santo Tomas (UST), 2111, 21-16 to top Bracket A, while Abria and Becaldo, now playing for Mandaue City, hold the top spot in Bracket B.