LAOAG CITY , Philippines – There’s a brand new shark on the town.
Titus Rafael Sia emerged as the most recent pool titan after shattering two meet data and successful three gold medals thus far to anchor NCR’s surge halfway by way of the 2025 Palarong Pambansa yesterday on the Ferdinand E. Marcos Memorial Stadium aquatics heart right here.
The 12-year-old Sia, from San Juan Metropolis, made ripples in his first Palaro plunge, resetting the marks in elementary boys’ 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke with an final objective of successful all his seven occasions – on the house province of Ilocano Shark and two-time Olympic medalist Teofilo Yldefonso.
Yldefonso, additionally a warfare hero who grew to become the primary Filipino and Southeast Asian medalist within the Summer time Video games, is the silhouette behind the official brand of the sixty fifth Palaro being hosted by Ilocos Norte for under the primary time since 1968.
Sia swam 4,000 to five,000 meters prior to now month as he braced for his chase of glory and historical past.
“I simply carry on swimming and swimming. I simply need to swim and break all of the data (potential),” mentioned Sia, an incoming Grade 7 scholar in Xavier College San Juan, who’s additionally to see motion in three particular person and one relay occasions.
He clocked two minutes and seven.86 seconds for the gold in 200m freestyle, breaking the outdated mark of two:08.12 of Central Luzon’s Rafael Barreto in 2013 Dumaguete version. Within the 100m backstroke, he timed 1:05.44 to surpass the 1:06.38 mark of NCR’s Seth Isaak Martin within the 2015 Tagum video games.
However Sia, who additionally gained gold within the 4x50m medley relay, wasn’t the one performer creating huge waves within the Caaoacan Seashore some eight kilometers from the Laoag Metropolis plaza.
La Salle’s Sophia Rose Garra, who dominated the Cebu version with six mints, in a while made two new data of her personal on the way in which to creating it a four-gold haul thus far in elementary ladies. Like Sia, she’s out to go 7/7.
Garra (1:07.61) didn’t solely break her personal report of 1:08.50 within the 100m backstroke she set in 2024 Cebu Palaro but additionally got rid of the two:33.12 mark of Michaela Jasmine Mojdeh within the 200m particular person medley in 2018 Vigan Video games with 2:31.41.
Hailing from Malabon, the incoming Grade 7 scholar additionally dominated the 200m freestyle and 4x50m relay with workforce NCR to develop into probably the most bemedaled swimmer thus far.
Two extra NCR tankers in Patricia Mae Santor of UST (200m butterfly, 200m IM) and Raina Samantha Leyran (50m backstroke, 4x50m medley relay) seized two golds every as 17-time champion Metro Manila pulled away with two competitors days to go.
Because of an enormous harvest in swimming and gymnastics led by five-gold winner Arman Hernandez Jr. from Pasay, NCR zoomed to 52 gold, 26 silver and 16 bronze medals to create an enormous hole from Calabarzon (24-35-19) and Western Visayas (16-19-16).
In the meantime, Jhul Ian Cañalita captured his second record-breaking gold medal within the 3,000m steeplechase in 9:23.89 to beat the 9:35.2 mark of Central Luzon’s Jerry Vasquez set within the 2019 Davao Palaro.
