Makati swimmer smashes 2 of 7 Palaro new records

By Peter Atencio

COLEGIO San Agustin’s Ava Krystal David enjoyed competing among friends, grabbing three golds and breaking her second meet record along the way in swimming on Day 3 of the 2023 Palarong Pambansa Wednesday at the Marikina Sports Complex.

The 12-year-old David, who finished her campaign with three gold medals, clocked 36.51 seconds in the elementary girls’ 50-meter breaststroke, erasing the 36.03-second mark of Raissa Gavino set back in 2018 and establishing the seventh Palaro record here.

“The second one was really nice. Because I had competitors and they’re close friends. And it made everything light hearted,” said David, a sixth grader from Colegio San Agustin in Makati.

David ended up with her third gold medal when she topped the 200-meter individual medley, submitting a time of 2:37.32, with Liv Florendo of Region 1 and Anika Matiling of Region 6 in second and third, respectively.

Four meet records fell on Wednesday and a total of seven records have tumbled down in the aquatics competitions, with David claiming her first one on Tuesday in the 100-meter breaststroke.

David erased the 100-meter breaststroke mark of Gavino in 2018 of 1:19.35 with an improved 1:17.98 clocking.

Bicol bet Albert Amaro II, Yzabel de los Santos and the National Capital Region’s

4x50-meter freestyle relay team also erased a meet record, with Amaro, an 11th grader from San Beda, making his mark in the secondary boys’ 50-meter butterfly.

The 16-year-old Amaro, who is also celebrating his first outing in the Palaro, claimed a gold medal for the Southern Tagalog Region, with a 26.14-second performance shattering the 2018 feat of Jules Mirandilla of Calabarzon (26.34 seconds).

De los Santos, a 15-year-old studentathlete residing in Malanday, Marikina, swam the secondary girls’ 50-meter breaststroke for the gold in 34.46 seconds, surpassing the five-year-old clocking of 35.63 seconds by Sophia Manantan.

Beatriz Mabalay (Region V) settled for second and also had a record finish behind De los Santos (35.08 seconds).

Later, the NCR squad of Cesar Nazareno, Victoriano Tirol, Jared Cheng and Arbeen Thruelen ruled the 4x50 meter freestyle relay, with its time of 1:40.64, better than the NCR team’s in 1:41.45 in 2016.