Western Visayas runner breaks decades-old Palaro mark

MANILA, Philippines – A young trackster from Western Visayas became the first athlete to establish new record in the 2009 Palarong Pambansa being held at the Leyte Sports Development Center in Tacloban City. Jesabel Montibon, who is competing in her first and last Palaro in the elementary division, broke the 13-year old mark in 800m run during the time trial. Montibon negotiated the distance in two minutes and 23.9 seconds to break the old mark of 2:25 made by Jovel Ambagon in the 1996 edition. “Masaya po dahil ito ang una at huli kong paglalaro dito. Ang hangad ko lamang ngayon ay manalo rin ng ginto sa event ko," said Montibon who started competing in the local meet, district meet, and regional meet before getting a slot for this year’s Games. Cotabato Region displayed their class in secondary boys’ arnis even as favorite Patrick Unso gave National Capital Region its first gold in boys’ high jump. Rey John Miguel topped the Anyo Individual double weapon event with 92 points and later joined hands with Nomer Buenavente and Jerome Magna to win the team double weapon with 91.2 points. Unso, the youngest of three children of former national hurdles record holder Renato Unso, cleared the bar at 1.85m to win the gold. The 5-foot-9 Unso, 17, attempted to break the 1.90m record held by Paolo Martinez set in 2002 when he raised the bar to 1.91m. The incoming fourth year high school student at University of Santo Tomas, however, failed to clear the bar in three attempts despite his father and elder brother Jose Renato egging him on. “Still I’m very happy with my jumps today because this gold medal was a product of hard work. I finished fifth last year in Palawan and I really worked hard in training after that defeat," said Unso. His older brother, Jose Renato, is a Palarong Pambansa double gold medalist after topping the 110m and 400m hurdles in Palawan. Unso aims to sweep his events as he will still compete in the 110m hurdles, and the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Western Visayas, however, is still on top of the medal standings with four gold. After three gold medals in athletics, Region VI took another one in the arnis’ anyo team single weapon courtesy of Warlie Gumban, Michael Calolot and Jelven Fajardo. Action will go full blast starting Wednesday with NCR expected to dominate the medal-rich swim events. – GMANews.TV