PUERTO PRINCESA CITY — James Brylle Ballester or Laguna and Lheslie de Lima of Camarines Sur buckled down to work as they grabbed the first gold medals in the athletics competition of the Philippine Youth Games-Batang Pinoy 2019 national finals at the Ramon V. Mitra Sports Complex here.

I temporarily stopped training because I want to remain as an honor student

Ballester ruled the boys 800-meter run while De Lima conquered the distaff side of the same event in this prestigious tourney that aims to find the sports stars of the future that was organized by the Philippine Sports Commission.

Ballester clocked two minutes and 4.8 seconds to claim the gold medal while Renzo King Catulay of Victoria City and Charlie Ong of General Santos City tallied 2:05.6 and 2:06.6 to pluck the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Also sharing first day honor was De Lima, the barefoot runner who has been a regular fixture in various age-group tournaments such as Palarong Pambansa and Philippine National Games.

The 14-year-old De Lima claimed the gold medal after clocking 2:22.5, besting Magvrylle Matchino of Laguna (2:25.0) and Ana Eugenio (2:28.3) of Pangasinan, respectively.

A Grade Eight student at the Baao National High School, De Lima said she had to stop training to focus more on her studies to maintain her spot in the honor class.

Fortunately, her effort still paid off as she copped another gold medal that came a month after joining the Asean School Games.

“I was not expecting to get the gold medal because I wasn’t feeling very well,” de Lima said, who suffered cramps in the heat of the battle before zooming in the final 150 meters en route to the victory.

“Also, I temporarily stopped training because I want to remain as an honor student. My sacrifices paid off.”

Her coach in Efren Buno echoed her remark.

“She did not have proper training for a month now so I told her to keep her pace,” he said.