by Kristel Satumbaga
DAVAO City – Swimmer Alexi Cabayaran and long jumper Trexie Dela Torre shone brightest for Western Visayas as they won their respective events in record-breaking fashions yesterday in the 2019 Palarong Pambansa in different venues here.
Cabayaran clocked 2 minutes and 15.76 seconds to capture the elementary girls 200m freestyle gold at the University of the Philippines swimming pool and eclipse the meet record of 2:16.72 posted by NCR’s Imee Joyce Saavedra in 2014.
At the University of Mindanao track oval, Dela Torre leapt to a distance of 5.84m to clinch the secondary girls gold medal after edging Central Luzon’s Marvilyn Canion.
Dela Torre and Canion actually posted identical 5.84m marks on their last attempts but Dela Torre’s second-best performance of 5.77m was better than Canion’s 5.75m to be adjudged as the winner.
She shattered the 17-year-old mark of 5.66m set by Southern Mindanao’s Maricel Sibug in 2002.
Dela Torre’s feat was achieved a few minutes after finishing bronze in the secondary girls 100m with a time of 12.43sec.
“Actually, wala ako sa focus dahil nagko-call na yung 100 meters pero tumatalon pa rin ako,” said Dela Torre, a Grade 11 student of Romanito Maravilla National High School.
Soccsksargen’s Hazel Domocum also broke the meet record in elementary girls long jump by leaping 5.08m for the gold, surpassing the 2010 mark of Alyssa Andrade’s 5.07m.
Meanwhile, Western Visayas’ Vince Jayson Buhayan clocked 10.62sec to dethrone NCR’s Veruel Verdadero (10.81sec) in the secondary boys 100m.
Central Visayas’ Decerie Niala ruled the distaff side in 11.98sec to cap off her final year in the tournament.
