LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte — Swimmer Titus Sia’s record-breaking performance highlighted another dominant outing by defending champion National Capital Region (NCR) on Thursday to close in on an 18th straight overall crown in the 65th Palarong Pambansa here.

The Big City bets have doubled their total gold medal haul over their closest rivals after Day 4 of competition fought in different fronts.

NCR has collected 73 gold, 51 silver, and 27 bronze medals as of 5:18 p.m.

Sia delivered the sweetest mint as the 12-year-old tanker copped his fifth gold in ruling the boys’ 400-meter freestyle event at the Ferdinand E. Marcos Memorial Stadium swimming pool.

The incoming Grade 7 student of Xavier School in San Juan clocked in four minutes and 31.39 seconds, resetting the standard recorded by Omar Dacera of the Davao Region when he finished 4:35.42 in the 2009 Palaro in Tacloban City in Leyte.

Sia was just proud that all his hard work during his build-up for the tournament paid off.

“So, I trained all day long. I did it twice a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Sia said.

“I even trained six days a week, sometimes seven, because I also have individual competitions.”

As of press time, Sia is gunning for his sixth and seventh gold in the 50m backstroke and 4x50 freestyle events.

Another NCR pool standout, Sophia Rose Garra, is competing in the girls 7 to 12 4x50m freestyle as of writing.

Garra already has five gold medals on her neck and is looking to continue her bid to become one of this edition’s most bemedaled athletes.

Anthony Cariaso joined the record-shattering rampage of NCR, prevailing in the secondary boys 1500m event.

He clocked in 4:00,53, surpassing the previous Palaro record of 4:01.9 set by Alfrente Braza of Western Visayas in the 2019 Palaro in Davao City.

Pole vaulter Lance C. Nicolas also turned heads in the secondary boys pole vault after he went over 3.80m.

CALABARZON remained at distant second place in the standings with a 30-44-40 gold-silver-bronze medal tally with Western Visayas at third with 24-33-27.

The final day of the Palaro begins at 6:30 a.m. with the heats for the elementary girls 800m event today.

The secondary boys basketball final will start at 9:30 a.m. at the Ilocos Norte Centennial Arena. The secondary boys and girls volleyball championship match will be disputed at the Mariano Marcos State University Gymnasium in Batac.