The Malaybalay City Athletic Association SPED dominated the 2014 Palarong Pampook Special Event at Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental on December 15-20 as they emerged over all champion for the second time, consecutively. This year’s theme is “Continuous Improvement in Sports: Leading to Global Competitiveness.” .
The team’s sacrifices during their one month Intensive training prior to the sports events paid off. The SPED Team gave honor to the division as they received 15 gold, 13 silver and 7 bronze medals during the Special Event Awarding Program at Tagoloan Dome, Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.
The athletes who bagged multiple medals are the following: Rhea Mae Lopez, Lieza Mae Rabanes, Jhery Rose Abatayo and Roselyn Gaaynon grabbed the gold medal for the 4X100 M relay girls 15 years old below category. For boys of the same event and category, Wendell Cornez, JV Lobrino, Ronny Ayawan and Jomel Daguplo also got the gold medal. Jemboy Alipayo, Jepee Arong, Gideon Antipasado, and Mark Venson Aguilor seized the gold medal in 4×100 M relay, boys-16 years old above.
Rhea Mae Lopez ranked first and Lieza Mae Rabanes placed second in the 200 M dash, girls 15 years old below category. For boys, Wendell Cornez landed first place while JV Lobrino ranked second. For girls of the same event 16 years old above category, Kareen Pastrano and Rogelyn Mirambel got the first and second spots respectively. For older boys of the same event, Jemboy Alipayo and Jepee Arong got the top two places respectively.
Rhea Mae Lopez won silver medal for 100 M dash. Wendell Cornez won gold for the similar event while JV LObrino won for himself a silver medal, and Ronny Ayawan came home with bronze medal. For older girls of the same event, Rogelyn Mirambel got silver. For older boys of similar event, Jepee Arong took the gold medal while Jemboy Alipayo seized the silver medal.
Rhea Mae Lopez won bronze for 400 M run, Lieza Mae Rabanes grabbed silver. JV Lobrino also got the gold for male category of the same age brachet. Kareen Pastrano also grabbed the gold for older girls’ category. Whereas, Jepee Arong got the gold for boys, and Mark Venson Aguilor got the silver medal.
Wendell Cornez got the gold in shot put for boys 15 years and below. For older boys level, Gideon Antipasado grabbed the silver medal.
For running long jump, the gold medal was brought home by Rogelyn Mirambel for girls and Jemboy Alipayo got gold for boys.
In the swimming events for boys, Arlon Labajan got gold for 50 M free style, silver for 50 M back stroke, and bronze for 50 M breast stroke. For girls, Roselyn Gaaynon bagged the silver for 50 M free style, silver for 50 M back stroke, and bronze for 50 M breast stroke.
The bocce team composed of Nicole John Catucag, Ronny Ayawan, Rogelyn Mirambel and Kareen Pastrano bagged the bronze medal.
The coaches for the special events were Jessiebel Ceriales for athletic girls 15 years old below and Daisy Cabase for athletic girls 16 years old above. For athletic boys 15 years old below category, Tresilita Linan served as coach whereas Feliciano I. Sante, Jr. coached the older boys. Jessiebert Sulatan trained the swimming team both for boys and girls. Giselle Ann Didecatoria served as trainer for bocce.
Eleven SPED athletes and three coaches are qualified to the Palarong Pambansa on May 2015 at Tagum City, Davao del Norte.
-by Feliciano I. Sante Jr.