BANTAY, Ilocos Sur– Veruel Verdadero briefly raised a clenched fist in the air upon reaching the finish line.
Coming up with a fast start, the incoming Grade 10 student from Region IV-A shattered the Philippine national junior record with his 10.55-second time in the secondary boys’ 100-meter yesterday in the 2018 Palarong Pambansa athletics meet here.
“Gusto ko talaga ma break iyung record,” said Verdadero after his hand-timed performance was over at the Quirino Stadium track oval.
Verdadero’s clocking eclipsed the national junior mark of 10.6 seconds that Julio Bayaban set in the 1979 National Open and the 10.75-second performance of Feberoy Kasi of Southern Mindanao Region during the 2016 Palaro.
Verdadero, the son of an Uber taxi driver, was cheered on by his mom, after he reached the finish line ahead of Western Visayas (Region 6) bet Vince Buhayan, who had a 10.88.
For Verdadero, who is being recruited by several Manila-based schools, this is the second time that had broken the Palaro mark after he previously did it in 10.65 seconds.
Two meet records fell on Day 2 in athletics, with Region III’s Ed Delina topping the secondary boys’ discus throw in 42.67 seconds.
Delina, who cross-trains in basketball, surpassed the 41.62-meter effort of Clifford Bonjoc of Region VII in 2005.
“Nag-relax ako at nag-warm up nang maganda,” said the 18-year-old 12th grader from Ramon Magsaysay State University in Iba, Zambales.
Meanwhile, in the secondary girls’ 2000-meter walk, a new event in these games,Laurize Wangkay of Region IV-A, along with seven others, completed the race above last year’s best time of 13:31.08 when the event was still a demonstration sport, as she got the gold in 10:44.44.
Algin Gomez of Region 2 earned his second gold medal after topping the secondary boys’ long jump finals in 14.55 meters, beating Region 10’s Clint Neri (14.42).
Jerico Pacis of NCR ruled the 400-meter hurdles finals in 54.81 seconds, with Kenneth Corpus of Region 13 in second and Kerry Calumpang of Region 12 in third.
John Manaloto added another gold for NCR in the elementary boys’ 400-meter hurdles, with a first-place finish in 1:04.21, while Rizza Vallente of Region VII took the top honors in the secondary girls’ side in 1:01.45. Princess Jane Uriarte (Region IV-A) dominated the elementary girls’ action in 1:09.07.
In women’s artistic gymnastics, Gail Santos of Region 3 won 3 of 4 golds at stake in cluster A, after she showed the way in the individual all-around exercise, the floor exercise and the vault.
In taekwondo, Region 6 won three golds with Arielle Beronio taking the individual girls’ gold in the elementary poomsae matches and Angelie Perillo topping the individual B side.
Lianna Sabando prevailed over Cordillera’s Kamille Calaycay in the kyorugi.
In secondary boys’ archery, Jonathan Reaport of NCR hit a 304 in the 50-meter distance for the gold, beating Region 8’s Jared Sia, who had a 301.
