PUERTO PRINCESA. — Pasig swimmer Arveen Naeem Taguinota II knew there was only one way for him to bounce back from his heartbreaking defeat the previous day.
When he returned to the Ramon V. Mitra Jr. Sports Complex pool Wednesday, Taguinota splashed his way to two gold medals and emerged as the most bemedalled athlete of the Batang Pinoy National Championships at the Ramon V. Mitra Jr. Sports Complex pool here.
After losing the boys’ 12 to 13-year-old 100-meter butterfly race by a tenth of a second to General Santos City’s Christian Isaiah Lagnason last Tuesday, Taguinota ruled the 100-meter backstroke in one minute and 4.30 seconds then anchored Pasig to victory in the 4×50-meter freestyle relay in a runaway time of 1:47.44.
Those pair of mints went with the 200-meter back, 200-meter individual medley and 50-meter backstroke gold medals he earlier won in the competition organized by the Philippine Sports Commission.
The Grade 8 student at the British International School in Phuket, Thailand will aim for his sixth and last mint when he leads Pasig in the boys’ 4×50 medley relay on Thursday.
Malabon’s Sophia Rose Garra, who also missed her fourth gold in the girls’ 12-13-year-old 100-m butterfly race, also bounced back in the 100-meter backstroke, winning in 1:08.77 to make a strong case as the most outstanding swimmer in her division.
“I’m happy with my performance overall, except for that lone silver, plus the fact that I set new personal bests in my events,” said Taguinota, 13, whose parents are overseas Filipino workers in Doha, Qatar.
In weightlifting, Rizal Province, whose squad is coached by Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Hidylin Diaz-Naranjo and her husband Julius, copped one while Zamboanga City netted two golds at the RVM gymnasium.
Showing the fruits of his two-year training under the celebrated weightlifting couple at their training camp in Jala-jala Rizal, Adonis Ramos hoisted a total of 185 kilos to top the boys’ 16 to 17-year-old 55-kilogram weight class.
Jesriel Bacu and Kirby Kent of Zamboanga City, the hometown of Diaz-Naranjo, ruled boys’ 12-year-old and 15-year-old 55kg weight divisions with lifts of 142 and 187 kilos, respectively.
Naranjo said he was satisfied so far by the Rizal squad that had four golds, six silvers and one bronze, counting Ramos’s mint.
