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National team mainstay Sermona wins 10K gold in national games athletics
DUMAGUETE CITY – National team mainstay Julius Sermona ruled the 10,000-meter run at the start of the athletics competition of the 2nd POC-PSC National Games here at the Perdices Sports Complex.
The 33-year old Sermona, the 2006 National MILO marathon champion, made his move in the final 200 meters to steal the win from Kenyan Josphat Kiptanul Too.
Sermona, representing PAF-HyperSports, clocked in 31 minutes and 9.44 seconds for the gold while Too, a nursing student at Negros Oriental State University, timed in 31:14.16.
Eduardo Buenavista, the national record holder of this event, settled for bronze with 32:03.97.
“Na-challenge kami dahil may mga Kenyan. Sa umpisa, medyo kinabahan kasi malakas talaga ang Kenyan pero nasukat ko na siya sa last two laps,” said Sermona, who failed to surpass his personal best time of 30:16.91 he registered in 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
Buenavista’s 29:02.34 clocking remains the event record which he registered in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.
Hanna Erika Sia of Baguio City won the gold in the women’s discus throw with a distance of 32.37 meters. Jhansel Udaundo also from Baguio took the silver with 28.80 meters while Cebu City’s Jade Marie Recto got the bronze on 26.42 meters mark.
National team member Eliezar Sunang of Baguio City topped the men’s shotput and Myka de Oro of Bacolod City in girls’ discus throw.
Sunang threw 15.58 meters for the gold but was way below the national record of 16.35 meters he set in 2009 in Vietnam. De Oro’s 38.96 meters throw was even better than the gold medal distance of Sia in the women category.
Rizel Buenaventura took the gold in the women’s pole vault on 3.75-meter jump while Emily Jean Obiena ruled the girls division with 2.40 meter distance.
Over at the Convention Center, Grandmasters Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio, Darwin Laylo and Richard Bitoon rolled over their first-round assignments
Antonio defeated Jared Ben Allosa of Dumaguete on Board 1, while Torre, Asia’s first GM and also playing for QC, crushed Dumaguete’s Jonathan Lubrido; Bitoon of Cebu downed Wilfred Vergel Neri of Aklan, and Laylo defeated Regie Reginaldo of Tanjay.
Sulu won the gold in men’s tunggal putra event in pencak sila through Ishmael Abdulnasseef. Adzar Abdulrasad of Cebu City and Ishmael Abdulgani of Zamboanga took the silver and bronze, respectively.
In karatedo, OJ delos Santos and Raquel Lazares, both members of the national team, took the gold in the men’s and women’s individual kata respectively.
Cebu bagged the gold in team kata event both in men’s and women’s categories. The men’s kata team was composed of Rommel Montes Jr., Ryan Lemonares and Samuel Orillo while the women’s team was made up of TL Basalo, Gwen Ponteros and Joan Inego.
