PUERTO PRINCESA - Stung by his close loss the previous day, Pasig swimmer Arveen Naeem Taguinota II bounced back with two gold medals Wednesday, emerging as the most bemedalled swimmer with five in the Batang Pinoy National Championships at the Ramon V. Mitra Jr. Sports Complex pool here.
Taguinota, who lost 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, ruled the 100-meter backstroke in one minute and 4.30 seconds then anchored Pasig to victory in the 4x50-meter freestyle relay in a runaway time of 1:47.44.
Those pair of mints added to the 200-meter back, 200-meter individual medley, and 50-meter backstroke events 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 be aiming for his sixth and last mint in spearheading Pasig in the boys 4x50 medley relay on Thursday in the meet also supported by the Puerto Princesa Mineral Water, Pocari Sweat, and Milo.
Malabon's Sophia Rose Garra, who also missed her fourth gold and out-of-podium finish in the girls' 12-13-year-old 100m butterfly race, finally made it in the 100-meter backstroke (1:08.77) to make a strong case as the most outstanding swimmer in her division.
"I'm happy by my performance overall, except for that lone silver, plus the fact that I set new personal bests in my respective events," said Taguinota, 13, whose parents are overseas Filipino workers in Doha, Qatar
In weightlifting, Rizal Province, whose squad is coached by the 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 in topping the boys 16 to 17-year-old 55-kilogram weight class.
On the other hand, 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.
"Malaking bagay ang training ko kaila coach Hidy and Julius. Okay na rin to kaisa walang makukuha puro cell phone," Ramos, a bronze medalist in the 2023 edition in Manila, disclosed what drew him to the sport.
"Nakuha ko po ito through hard work and perseverance so I believe I deserve to win this gold," added the Jala-jala National High School senior student.
Naranjo said that he was satisfied thus far by the Rizal squad that
four golds, six silvers, and one bronze, counting Ramos's mint yesterday.
The other gold medalists were Maybell Riones in the girls 12-13-year-old 35 kg class, Reynadine Marie Jimenez in the girls 12-13-year-old 40kg class and Matthew Diaz in the boys 12-13-year-old 43kg category.
"I think being one of the youngest weightlifting grassroots programs for just two years, the children's progress has been significant. It shows the effort that Hidylin and I are putting in this undertaking," Naranjo said.
"Hopefully the 11-and-under will be back because we have strong lifters there," he said, adding that "there were some successes but a lot of heartbreaks as well. But we aim to learn from them."
On the other hand, Milo handed out awards to the youngest athletes in soft tennis player Xian Ubay of Puerto Princesa, chesser Tristan Galera of Tanauan, and dancesport athlete Reynard Engcoy of Davao del Norte, who are all 13 years old.
Milo also bestowed an award to the Puerto Princesa City government as the host city of the BP National Championships and to the Pasig City contingent for having the biggest delegation of 624 participants.
