NCR tankers rip records, string up golds

LAOAG CITY , Philippines  – There’s a new shark in town.

Titus Rafael Sia emerged as the newest pool titan after shattering two meet records and winning three gold medals so far to anchor NCR’s surge midway through the 2025 Palarong Pambansa yesterday at the Ferdinand E. Marcos Memorial Stadium aquatics center here.

The 12-year-old Sia, from San Juan City, made ripples in his first Palaro plunge, resetting the marks in elementary boys’ 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke with an ultimate goal of winning all his seven events – at the home province of Ilocano Shark and two-time Olympic medalist Teofilo Yldefonso.

Yldefonso, also a war hero who became the first Filipino and Southeast Asian medalist in the Summer Games, is the silhouette behind the official logo of the 65th Palaro being hosted by Ilocos Norte for only the first time since 1968.

Sia swam 4,000 to 5,000 meters in the past month as he braced for his chase of glory and history.

“I just keep on swimming and swimming. I just want to swim and break all the records (possible),” said Sia, an incoming Grade 7 student in Xavier School San Juan, who’s also to see action in three individual and one relay events.

He clocked two minutes and 7.86 seconds for the gold in 200m freestyle, breaking the old mark of 2:08.12 of Central Luzon’s Rafael Barreto in 2013 Dumaguete edition. In the 100m backstroke, he timed 1:05.44 to surpass the 1:06.38 mark of NCR’s Seth Isaak Martin in the 2015 Tagum games.

But Sia, who also won gold in the 4x50m medley relay, wasn’t the only performer creating big waves in the Caaoacan Beach some eight kilometers from the Laoag City plaza.

La Salle’s Sophia Rose Garra, who dominated the Cebu edition with six mints, later on made two new records of her own on the way to making it a four-gold haul so far in elementary girls. Like Sia, she’s out to go 7/7.

Garra (1:07.61) did not only break her own record of 1:08.50 in the 100m backstroke she set in 2024 Cebu Palaro but also bumped off the 2:33.12 mark of Michaela Jasmine Mojdeh in the 200m individual medley in 2018 Vigan Games with 2:31.41.

Hailing from Malabon, the incoming Grade 7 student also ruled the 200m freestyle and 4x50m relay with team NCR to become the most bemedaled swimmer so far.

Two more NCR tankers in Patricia Mae Santor of UST (200m butterfly, 200m IM) and Raina Samantha Leyran (50m backstroke, 4x50m medley relay) seized two golds each as 17-time champion Metro Manila pulled away with two competition days to go.

Thanks to a huge 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 a huge gap from Calabarzon (24-35-19) and Western Visayas (16-19-16).

Meanwhile, Jhul Ian Cañalita captured his second record-breaking gold medal in the 3,000m steeplechase in 9:23.89 to beat the 9:35.2 mark of Central Luzon’s Jerry Vasquez set in the 2019 Davao Palaro.