POOL PRODIGY: Taguinota winds up as Batang Pinoy’s winningest athlete

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY — Swimmer Arvin Naeem Taguinota II of Pasig City emerged as the most bemedalled athlete with six gold medals in the Batang Pinoy National Championships that ended Thursday at the Ramon V. Mitra Jr. Sports Complex.

To get his final gold medal, the 13-year-old tanker from the British International School, Phuket in Thailand had to join forces with Charles Ezekiel Canlas, Marcelino Picardal III and Jefferson Saburlase in the boys’ 12-13 4x50-meter medley relay by clocking in one minute and 50.39 seconds.

Taguinota, whose father is a businessman and whose mother works in a salon, was the first swimmer to make the plunge in the relay to make sure he was able to give his teammates a head start in the competition.

“I trying to give my team a very good lead so that we can win the relay,” said Taguinota, whose parents are based in Qatar.

“I’m so happy that I improved my times from last year.”

Parañaque City settled for silver after Rafael Letejas III, Miiguel Luis Fernandez, Antonio Joaquin Reyes and Admiel Percy Sajise clocked in 2:07.38.

Balanga City swimmers Kyle Aroban, Anod Jose Padre, Braynne Emmanuel Etor and James de Guzman finished with a bronze medal with a time of 2:07.78.

Apart from this event, Taguinota also won in the 12-13 boys’ 100-meter backstroke with 1:04.30, 200m individual medley with 2:22.02, 100m freestyle with 57.92 seconds, 200m backstroke with 2:19.88, and the 4x50-m freestyle relay with Ricardo Delgado, Picardal and Jefferson with 1:47.44.

His only silver medal in the competition was at the boys’ 12-13 100m butterfly event with a time of 28.64 seconds.

Christian Lagnason of General Santos City clocked in 1:02.35 minutes to win the event and deny Taguinota a sweep.

More than just dominating meets, Taguinota also sees the Batang Pinoy as a way of reconnecting with his Filipino roots after growing up overseas as he returns to Thailand on Monday.

“If I have the chance, I want to stay here. I feel more connected to the people here than in Thailand. I like the food here more,” said Taguinota, who revealed his favorite Filipino dish is chicken adobo.

“Here, I can understand the language and the food is nice.”

Pasig City head coach Jessie Lacuna said Taguinota has the makings of a great swimmer.

“He’s a hard worker as a person. Very soon, he will make it into the international scene,” said Lacuna, who represented the country in the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“He will not follow me but he will make his own pathway.”

Taguinota is one of Pasig City’s biggest contributors as they are on the verge of breaking Baguio City’s four-year reign as overall champions.

At press time, Pasig City remained in control with 83 golds, 49 silvers and 88 bronzes for a total medal tally of 220 medals.

Gymnast Haylee Garcia also contributed heavily to the Pasigueños medal drive after scooping up five mints in the women’s artistic gymnastics.

Baguio City is in second place with a 63-53-58 gold-silver-bronze medal tally while Quezon City sits in third place with a 45-43-45 haul.

An incentive of P5 million awaits this year’s Batang Pinoy overall champion while the second-placed local government unit (LGU) will pocket P4 million.

The third-placer will get P3 million, P2 million goes to the fourth-best and the fifth-best will take home P1 million.

Also making an impact on the final day of the Batang Pinoy is TJ Amaro of Naga City after setting a new meet record of 1:57.04 minutes, erasing last year’s record of 1:59.94 minutes held by Paolo Miguel Labanon of Davao City.

In athletics, Pi Durden Forward Wangkay of Biñan City became the fastest man of the competition clocking in 10.88 seconds in the 100m dash event for his first gold medal of this year’s event.

In futsal, Puerto Princesa shocked Negros Occidental, 3-1, in the final of the boys’ U17 final.