PROSPERIDAD, Agusan del Sur — Swimmer Patricia Mae Santor of the National Capital Region (NCR) fulfilled her goal of winning all of her seven events on Friday to become No. 1 gold medal producer of the 66th Palarong Pambansa.
Showcasing her pool prowess at the Datu Lipus Makapandong-Gov. Democrito O. Plaza Sports Complex, Santor’s 2026 stint will go down as a landmark even given that this was her final year.
The University of Santo Tomas (UST) High School student capped her performance in this grassroots event backed by the Philippine Sports Commission after topping the secondary girls’ 100-meter butterfly with a clocking of one minute and 4.09 seconds.
The daughter of a warehouse manager and a consultant admitted she could have done better in her last Palaro stint but was nonetheless satisfied as she braces for a tougher grind in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines.
“I became emotional not because of seventh gold although it’s a really good achievement. I was aiming for the record. I was a bit short. But although I didn’t get it, I realized in the end that I was a bit hard on myself,” Santor said.
“What comes first is to just have fun and don’t be hard on yourself like I did. Just enjoy the competition. We’ll have setbacks and we’ll become stronger from those setbacks.”
Santor also won gold medals in the 400m individual medley, 4x50m medley relay, 50m butterfly, 200m IM, 200m butterfly, and 4x100m medley relay.
Also making her mark in the elementary girls’ level was Riley Alindogan of Bicol Region with six golds and one silver medal.
The 12-year-old swimmer from St. Agnes Academy in Legazpi City in Albay was satisfied with her showing.
“I didn’t expect to win this many golds. My goal here was to get at least one gold medal,” Alindogan said.
Anton Della of Ilocos Region capped his campaign in this year’s Palaro with five golds with his recent one setting a new record in the secondary boys’ 800m freestyle with a time of 8:38.71. It also broke the previous mark of 8:49.97 of Miguel Labanon in 2024 in Cebu City.
Seb Rafael Santos of Central Luzon won his lone gold medal in the secondary boys’ 200m breaststroke and even clocked in 2:23.98 to establish a new meet record and erased the previous-best time of 2:25.29 by Lance Rafael Cruz in 2023 in Marikina City.
Riannah Chantelle Coleman of the National Academy of Sports set a new secondary girls’ 200m breaststroke record of 2:39.60 and eclipsedthe 2:41.75-mark by Jasmine Mojdeh in 2024.
Charles Boneo of CALABARZON, the most outstanding swimmer in the elementary boys’ group with six golds and one silver, winning his final event with a time of 1:02.41 in the 100m butterfly event.
In athletics, Franceine Jhobie Rosario of NCR shattered her previous record of 2.75m as she soared to 3.15m to win the secondary girls’ pole vault gold.
The NCR is on track to its 19th Palaro overall title with a 50-44-42 gold-silver-bronze medal tally as of 4 p.m. Friday.
CALABARZON sits in second place with a 32-36-35 tally while Western Visayas is in third with a 26-23-22 medal haul.