Mindanaotoday.com | Normin ranks 6th on day 2 at Palaro
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
Athletics and arnis proved to be Northern Mindanao’s gold-medal hopes as the region took the 6th spot on Wednesday, August 2, among 17 athletic delegations seeing action in the 2023 Palarong Pambansa in Marikina City.
Region 10 has collected a total of 25 medals–8 golds, 5 silvers, and 12 bronzes, just two silvers behind 5th-placer Region 3 (Central Luzon) with an 8-7-12 medal haul, as of 7 pm of Day 2. Region IV-A (Southern Tagalog-Calabarzon) is on top with 19-17-13 tally, so far.
Triple-jump athlete Marc Angelo Cabiluna, 16, from Villanueva, Misamis Oriental stamped his class, posting a gold-medal 14.02-meter performance for secondary boys. He was the shortest in the field at 5-feet-4-inch frame.
Tangub City’s Teo Lou Papel, 18, clocked 16 minutes and 52 seconds to rule the 5,000-meter run in secondary boys; an improvement of his 17:09.04 personal best logged during the National Open Track and Field Championships in March this year.
A three-member team of arnis players, King Joshua Mikabalo, Nilo Medel Jr., and Sean Silvester Pagarigan, gave Normin another gold-medal finish in synchronized double-weapon for elementary boys.
Pagarigan secured a singular gold-medal honor when he ruled arnis for sword and dagger in elementary boys.
Medel became a double-gold winner too, pocketing his first gold medal in arnis anyo for elementary boys on Day 1. It was on that day when Viansce Mae Nemenzo, who also topped the distaff side in arnis anyo, got a gold medal.
Another gold medal came from 400-meter hurdles secondary girls on Day 1 when Jamaica Kate Saligan from Balingasag, Misamis Oriental time 1:06 in the finals. In 400-meter run on Day 2, she salvaged a bronze.
Region 10’s sixth spot, however, is just one or two-gold medals ahead of Cordillera Autonomous Region (7-6-2), Central Visayas (6-5-7), and Ilocos Region (6-5-6); rankings that change often until Saturday, August 5, when this year’s edition—after a three-year hiatus—of National Games comes to a close.
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