PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan — Isidro del Prado, Jr, and Renato Unso gave their already proud parents another reason to smile as they anchored the National Capital Region to two more gold medals even as its swim team capped its mighty show by winning seven more golds yesterday in the Palarong Pambansa at the Ramon V Mitra Sports Complex here.
Del Prado and Unso, who turned instant celebrities, joined forces with John Willy Jules and Oliver Ocampo in ruling the 4x400m relay in 51.3 seconds, edging Western Visayas and Calabarzon in a pulsating photo finish.
The del Prado-Unso tandem then teamed up with Justin Tabunda, the 5,000m and 1,500m gold medalist, and Rommel Labos in ruling the 4x100m in 43.7 ahead of Central Visayas and Calabarzon, which settled for the silver and bronze medals in 44.6 and 44.9, respectively.
With the feat, del Prado and Unso, sons of former track stars in the 80s, emerged the best performers at the track as the two scooped up four gold medals apiece while Tabunda ended up with three as they helped the Big City bets win the secondary boys title.
"I’m happy to run with sons of former track stars like myself, it’s a nice feeling winning here," said del Prado, whose father Isidro is former two-time Olympian, in Filipino.
Del Prado had a chance to make it a five-gold haul but he lost in the 200m to Central Visayas’ Lindley Fran Navaja, who timed in 22.4 to complete a sprint double that made up for his frustrations last year when he went home with a 100m gold and just a 200m silver. Del Prado settled for the silver with a time of 22.7.
The NCR also lorded it over the pool as it claimed seven more gold medals that raised its total to 30 out of the possible 56.
Fahad Alkhaldi accounted for six of it following victories in 200m individual medley for elementary boys where he clocked 2 minutes and 32.8 seconds ahead of Calabarzon’s Emmanuel Pedron in 2:33.40 and fellow NCR bet Jovic Ventinilla in 2:39.01.
Alkhaldi later copped his sixth gold after he powered 400m relay team that included Dunn Clarke Vinluan, Juan Carlo Reyes and Jose Gio Palencia to victory in 4:18.08 that shattered the old meet record of 4:21.53 set also by the NCR in Iloilo two years back.
The NCR squad of Hannah Dato, Roanne Florence Yu, Winona Yu and Sabrina Ingrid Illustre then shattered the 400m freestyle relay mark of 4:19.43 set by Calabarzon in last year’s edition clocking 4:15.59.
According to tournament manager Richard Luna, the pair of final day NCR records were the 10th and 11th recorded in the four-day pool meet.
In boxing, Davao Region took four of the five gold medals staked in the sport including victories by brothers powder weight Joan Vincent and paperweight Engelbert Moralde, Jr.
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