BANTAY, Ilocos Sur—For swimmer Michaela Mojdeh and sprinter Jessel Lumapas it, was a bountiful week in the 2018 Palarong Pambansa as it neared to a close yesterday at the Quirino Stadium here.
The 11-year-old Mojdeh of the National Capital Region ended her first-ever major tournament with a bang when she earned her sixth gold medal after joining seven events. She took the gold medal in her last event, the elementary girls’ 100-meter butterfly.
Lumapas, who had four golds in five events entered, settled for a silver after she towed Region IV-A to a runner-up finish to NCR in the secondary girls’ 4×100 meter relay race.
Mojdeh, a 6th grader from Immaculate Heart of Mary in Paranaque, bucked a bum stomach when she finished the 100-meter butterfly event in one minute, 19.59 seconds.
A daughter of a restaurant owner, Mojdeh earlier broke the mark in the 200-meter individual medley in 2:33.12, her feat improving on the 2:33.71 last year of Faith Alcoseba of Central Visayas.
Then, Mojdeh took her other golds in the 50-meter butterfly and helped the NCR 50-meter relay and 100-meter relay squads grab first-place finishes.
Her silver came in the 50-meter breaststroke after a bad start when she slipped from the starting board.
“Nag-enjoy lang ako sa swim ko. Medyo masakit ang tiyan, pero tiniis ko lang po,” said Mojdeh, who picked up speed halfway into the race in beating Jie Talosig of Region 12 and Region IV-A Jhaziel Doliente.
Lumapas and the Region IV-A crew of Charlaine and Charmaine de Ocampo and Erica Ruto earlier broke the year-old record that they set at 3:54.37, with a better time of 3:53.97 in the 4×400-meter relay finals.
Then, Lumapas spearheaded the Southern Luzon squad to another record-smashing performance in the afternoon finals.
All in all, Lumapas left her footprints with gold-medal finishes in the 100-meter dash, which she ran in 11.99 seconds, and in the 400-meter run in record-breaking fashion with a time of 56.28 seconds.
Her clocking in the 400-meter run eclipsed the 57.33-second feat of Jenny Rose Rosales of Region VI in 2011.
“Masaya pa rin kasi may nakuha pa rin,” said the 17-year-old Lumapas, an 11th grader at Dasmarinas East National High School in Cavite.
National junior 100-meter record holder Veruel Verdadero finished his campaign by spearheading Region IV-A to a gold medal in the 4×400-meter relay and and a bronze in the 4×100 meter relay behind Western Visayas Region.
Verdadero finished with three golds and two bronzes.
Seventeen-year-old Fil-American and Ilonggo Alexei Caimoso of Region 6 and Region IV-A’s Evangeline Caminong came a millimeter short of breaking the Philippine junior record in the secondary girls’ high jump after they both cleared 1.68 meters.
The national mark set by Kaylee Mosqueda two years ago remains at 1.69, but Caimoso and Caminong managed to shatter the two-year Palaro mark set by Cherie Mae Banatao of 1.66 in 2016.
Middle distance runner Lheslie de Lima took her second gold for Region V after she beat Region XI’s Camila Tubiano with her clocking of 4:42.15, while Region XII’s Nathaniel Morales ruled the secondary boys’ side.
Overall, NCR scooped 74 golds, 56 silvers and 40 bronzes on the penultimate day of the games, with Region IV-A in second with its 45-36-56 gold-silver-bronze tally. Region VI (Western Visayas) is in third (37-36-45).
