By CALVIN CORDOVA

CEBU CITY—After a slow start, perennial champion National Capital Region (NCR) started flexing its muscle and surged ahead in the medal rankings of the 64th Palarong Pambansa here on Saturday, July 13.

The Big City trailed Region 4-A when the medal-rich athletics and swimming opened on Thursday but got its bearings going and wrested the overall lead in Day 3 of the sports fest.

As of 3 p.m., NCR was in No. 1 spot with a haul of 37 golds, 21 silvers, and 32 bronzes. Region 4-A was in second place with 30 golds, 16 silvers, and 25 bronzes.

Region 6 came in third with 19 golds, 19 silvers, and 18 bronzes followed by host region Central Visayas with 16 golds, 25 silvers, and 10 bronzes.

Sparking NCR’s surge were swimmers Sophia Rose Garra and Ivo Nikolai Enot, who both came up with record-setting performances on Friday, July 12.

Garra dominated the elementary girls 100 long course (LC) at 1:08.50, breaking the previous record of 1:09.65 that NCR’s Dorothy Garxe set in 2006.

Inot completed his own record-setting performance when he ruled the elementary boys LC backstroke at 59.34, eclipsing the old record that was set by Gerard Jacinto of NCR at 59.64 in 2017.

It was actually a tight duel between NCR and Region 4-A at the aquatics center of the Cebu City Sports Center.

Region 4-A made a huge splash behind the stellar performance of Micaela Jasmine Mojdeh.

Mojdeh won the secondary girls 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:41.75, breaking the previous record (2:43.08) set by Xiandi Chua of NCR in 2019.   

Before her record-setting swim last Friday, Mojdeh shattered her own record in the 200m backstroke after she timed 2:19.72 to win the gold last Thursday. Mojdeh bettered the 2:22.69 that she made in the 2019 Palaro.

Mojdeh’s teammate Peter Cyrus Dean topped the secondary boys 200m individual medley by timing 2:12.14, breaking the previous record of 2:12.58 that Philip Joaquin Santos of NCR set in 2019.

Beatrize Maria Mabalay of Region 5 recorded her own record-shattering performance when she dominated secondary girls 50m backstroke with a time of 34.35, eclipsing the previous record of 34.36 that was set in 2023 by Clara Yzabela Delos Santos of NCR.

Also one of the record breakers was Albert Jose Amaro II of Region 4-A, who clocked 25.25 to win the secondary boys 50m butterfly. Hugh Antonio wound up second but his 26.05 swim also broke the old record by Albert Jones Amaro of Region 5 which he set in 2023 at 26.14.