TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines- A Cagayano athlete nearly broke the Palarong Pambansa record of Triple Jump in his botched attempt during the Cagayan Valley Regional Athletic Association (CAVRAA) Meet 2018.
Algin Gomez, 17, a senior high school student of Aparri East National High School, was able to surpass the Palaro record, but officiating officials declared foul.
With this, Gomez also failed to break his Palaro record, but was still able to notch the gold medal in Triple Jump of athletics sports.
Gomez snatched a gold in last year’s Palaro in Antique when he set 14.57 meters on tape. The national record, unbroken as of this report, is 15.01 meters.
Edwin Tagal, the athletic manager of Cagayan delegations, told Forum that Gomez suffered a minor strain in botched first attempt, which could have contributed to his failure to surpass his record last year.
Tagal earlier said Gomez had “unofficially” broke his own Palaro record during a tune-up friendship game with the Cagayan State University earlier in February.
Gomez’s record during the friendship games was recorded at 14.68 meters.
“I can still improve on that until this year’s Palarong Pambansa in Ilocos,” he told Northern Forum during an interview on February 21.
The young Aparriano was just one of those boys playing around when he was discovered for the event as early as when he was in Grade V at the Maura Elementary School. He is the eldest child of a tricycle driver and a housewife in Aparri.
Meanwhile, Tagal said Cagayan delegation is expected to maintain if not surpass its own performance from last year’s edition of the meet hosted by the City of Ilagan.
“Our gold medalists in the various events are ready to see action by Friday,” he said. Cagayan has been the over-all champion for six consecutive years but was broken only in 2015 when Nueva Viscaya was declared champion in its own turf.
As of 3 pm on Tuesday, February 27, Cagayan is leading the partial official medal tally with 57 gold medals, followed by Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela. With reports from Benjie De Yro/Northernforum.net
