THIS one’s too close to call.
Amidst the windy weather and a muddy field, Central Visayas archer Naina Dominique Tagle hogged the limelight yesterday in the 63rd Palarong Pambansa that saw Western Visayas grab the lead in what is turning out to be a three-region race for the overall title.
The Western Visayas bets zoomed ahead with 27 golds, 21 silvers, and 13 bronzes as of 6:30 p.m. last night in the third day of the Games.
The Negros campaigners banked on their mints in centerpiece athletics led by Angel Villagracia who topped the secondary girls 100-m hurdles.
Krisha Aguillon, a 100-meter run winner three days ago, bagged another gold in secondary girls 100-meter dash, while Mico Villaran delivered in the secondary boys 110-meter hurdles.
Defending 15-time champion National Capital Region took second place with 22 mints, 27 silver, and 20 bronze medals, while Calabarzon, which led the medal count last Wednesday, was third with a 20-28-21 haul.
Tagle, 16, became the first quadruple gold medalist of the Games in Marikina after she shot 327 points to reign supreme in the girls secondary 60-meter category at the STI Gold Toe Archery Center.
Her mark erased the previous high of 321 markers set by Charmaine Villamor from the Cordillera Administrative Region in Vigan in 2018 and matched by Chrisha Mae Merto in Davao four years ago.
“I prepared by training and making sure that I’m in the right headspace for this competition. I trained a lot,” Tagle said. “It’s very rainy, very muddy and the environment affects a lot of our shots, but I feel like as long as we have the right spirit, we’ll be fine.
“It bothered me, but I recovered and then naging okay. We were told that there would be a storm, but I wasn’t expecting the mud,” she added.
The NCR’s Guillana Venice Garcia settled for the silver with 313 points, while Ivory Faith Novesteras of Central Luzon snared the bronze with 312.
Tagle added her gold victory yesterday to the previous three mints she won last Wednesday in the 50-meter, 30-meter, and the 1440 rounds.
The eagle-eyed Tagle took the gold in the 50-meter event with 307 points and in the 30-meter with 338 to tally 1278 points.
Having an older sister in Nicole, a silver medalist in the Southeast Asian Games in 2017 and former Palaro teammate Phoebe Amistoso as idols boosted Tagle’s bid.
“I started when I saw my sister shoot when I was in third grade. It was in Cebu, and she inspired me to start kasi. I wanted to be with her in Palaro,” she said. “She is also an inspiration to me, watching both of them be able to do that inspires me that I can do that too.”
Records were also broken in the pool over at the Marikina Sports Center with Southern Tagalog tanker Quendy Fernandez making history for the second time in the games.
Fernandez showed the way in the girls secondary 50-meter backstroke with a time of 30.67 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 31.34 by Samantha Coronel in 2019.
Western Visayas swimmer Jennuel Booh De Leon clocked 26.78, two and a half seconds clear of the previous Palaro record of 29.18 in the men’s secondary 50-meter backstroke. He also got the gold in the 100-meter freestyle after recording 53.68.
Airex Gabriel Villanueva of Western Visayas stamped his class in the discus throw discipline with a record-breaking heave of 42.83 meters.
