Dapitan City — If her performance is to be described, Marie Crizabelle Merto would be the lead horse that pulls the wagon.
Merto, Dumaguete City’s prime archer, won two of three gold medals at stake yesterday powering Region 7’s five-gold harvest in the 2011 Palarong Pambansa, here.
Merto, who took up the sport when she was seven years old, barely missed sweeping the five golds in girls secondary archery at the ZN Sports Complex Archery Range.
After taking golds in the 30 meters and 40m event last Tuesday, Merto added two more yesterday, missing a third by a whisker. She opened her surge by scoring 317 points in ruling the 50m contest. Febenlyn Ecabo of Region 9 won silver with 305 points while Bianca Gotauco of NCR took the bronze with 279 points.
However, Merto stumbled in the 60m contest when she dropped a close battle to Encabo, 298-300.
Stung by that narrow loss, Merto returned the favor by winning the single Fita round with 1,288 points against Encabo’s 1,245. Jezreel Mitzi of CARAA took home the bronze with 1,176 points.
Julian Sebastian Teves also contributed to Region 7’s domination in archery, snaring the gold in secondary boys 40m contest with a score of 311. Niño Abiele, also from Region 7, snatched the bronze with 302 points. The silver went to Region 3’s Rommil Onarse who scored 306.
It was a big recovery for Teves who ranked fourth in the 30m event with 326 points.
A gold medal in archery is worth seven points, silver five and bronze four.
GYMNASTS SHINE
Also making waves in the third day of competition was the Region 7 gymnasts who donated two golds.
Mary Carmelli Garovillo, a consistent top performer for Region 7, won gold in the secondary individual all-around and teamed up with Karen Thea Velez and Jojelyn Tracy Badonio to win gold in the team event of rhythmic gymnastics.
Coach Darlene dela Pisa praised the effort of her gymnasts despite what she deemed “erratic scoring of the judges.”
“They (judges) were giving high scores to the gymnasts of NCR even if they performed poorly. They were dropping their apparatus and yet they were getting high scores,” said Dela Pisa in Cebuano.
NCR bagged silver in the team event with 141 points to Region 7’s 148.7.
Garovillo took home the individual all-around gold with 62 points followed by NCR bets Princess Joy Flores and Rhodora with 54 and 48 points, respectively. Region 7 also won silver in the elementary rhythmic team competition last Tuesday and another silver in last Monday’s elementary team WAG event.
Also donating a medal for Region 7 yesterday was Pia Mia Trapila, who won bronze in the 50m breaststroke.
In secondary table tennis team event, Region 7 settled for silver after a championship loss to Region 6, 3-0.
Going into today’s competitions, the Region 7 secondary athletes have eight golds, while the elementary team has one courtesy of Kit Pelletero.
Organizers have yet to release a partial tally of the overall race.
Pelletero competed in yesterday’s 100m dash but the results were not made available as of last night as officials decided to review the race due to the close finish in the fight for second and third between Pelletero and an athlete from Calabarzon.
In football, Region 7 trounced ARMM, 10-2, for its second straight win in the elementary division. In baseball, Region 7 scored a 5-0 win over ARMM which failed to show up in their match.