Cebu City—Athletes from the Calabarzon region showed their might on Day 2, hauling in a total of 19 golds, eight silvers and two bronze medals in the 2024 Palarong Pambansa at the Cebu City Sports Complex here on Friday.
Their dominance came through the good showings of Imus bet Jonalyn Halasan’s two-gold medal haul in the secondary girls’ athletics action, Mark Jacob Villamar’s four-gold feat in the elementary boys’ gymnastics events and two more golds from Jasmine Mojdeh in secondary girls’ swimming.
Host Cebu City may have gotten six golds medals from dancesport, through the efforts of high school bets Mitchloni Dinauanao and Francis Dave Sombal, but this did not affect Southern Tagalog’s campaign after two days.
The 17-year-old Halasan bagged her gold medal by ruling the secondary girls’ division of triple jump where she cleared 11.39 meters.
Halasan, an incoming Grade 12 student at the General Pantaleon Garcia Senior High School in Imus City, Cavite, earlier leaped to a height of 5.3 meters on her third attempt in the long jump event.
“Kanina kinakabahan ako, pero binigay ko na lang ang best, at kung ano iyung ginawa ko sa training,” said Halasan.
It was Halasan’s third time in the Palaro and her second gold medal after finishing first in the elementary girls’ division of the same event in 2019.
Villamar, a student of Jose Rizal Memorial School in Calamba, Laguna, struck gold in four of five events in cluster one of the elementary boys’ men’s artistic gymnastics action at the Cebu Institute of Technology.
Villamar’s golds were in the floor exercises, pommel horse, horizontal bar and individual all-around.
The 17-year-old Mojdeh, who is on her final year in the Palaro, took two more golds, following her record-smashing feat of 2:14.75 in the 200-meter backstroke, which eclipsed Xiandi Chua’s (NCR) five-year old 2:43.08. Peter Atencio
Mojdeh, who broke the 200-meter butterfly mark the other day, breezed through the 200-m individual medley in 2:26.68.
The National Capital Region, which has been the overall champions for the last 15 years, is second with its 15-8-13 tally, with medals coming from their 8-3-6 surge in the elementary division.
Region VII is at third with its 13-19-6 effort, with 10 golds won in dancesports.
