Seasoned long distance runner and national team member Julius Sermona from Himamaylan, Negros Occidental, edged Kenyan runner Josphat Kiptanui Too to grab the gold in the men’s 10,000-meter run in the POC-PSC National Games in Dumaguete City.

Sermona, who finished with a silver medal last year in the same event, made his move in the last two laps to overtake his Kenyan rival as the athletics competition in the national games started yesterday.

Running for Philippine Air Force-HyperSports, the 29-year-old Sermona said the Kenyan runner gave him a real challenged and felt nervous as he did not want to be embarrassed in front of his countrymen.

He finished the race with a time of 31 minutes and 9.44 seconds, while Too, who is part of a group of Kenyan Nursing students at the Negros Oriental State University, clocked 31:14.16.

Last year gold medalist gold medalist Eduardo Buenavista, also a member of the national team and SEA Games campaigner, grabbed the bronze medal with his time of 32:03.97.

Meanwhile, competition in dancesports highlighted the competition yesterday at the Lamberto Macias Coliseum as German Enriquez and Ma. Danella Renee Publico of National Capital Region won the gold in the amateur elite standard.

Enriquez, 31, and Publico, 21, showed why they are the current top ranked (standard) dancers in the country when they came up with a perfect routine in waltz, tango, Venice waltz, quickstep and foxtrot. They beat Mark Jayson Gayon and Alexandra Blay also of NCR, and Jonaz Rogel Evora and Sharmaine Marie Regio of Quezon.

NCR made it two in a row after Michael Angelo Marquez and Stephanie Sabalo ruled the amateur elite latin, winning over fellow NCR bets Jed Villanueva and Jennifer Amahan and Wilbert Aunzo and Pearl Marie Candea of Cebu.

The 23-year-old Marquez and the 24-year-old Sabalo also gained perfect scores after 1 minute and 45 seconds of chacha, rumba, samba, pasadoble and jive. Together, they won championships in the Kings Cup in Thailand last August, and the Malaysian Open and Korean Open last year.

Cebu City dominated the dancesports juvenile, youth and juniors competitions with a total of 21 gold medals. Led by Dancesports-Team Cebu City chief Edward Hayco, the non-government organization helped under-privileged children by teaching them not just how to dance but to eventually become young instructors.

In chess, grandmasters Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio, Darwin Laylo and Richard Bitoon rolled over their first-round assignments at the Convention Center of the Coliseum.

Antonio drubbed Jared Ben Allosa of Dumaguete on Board 1, while Torre, Asia's first GM and also playing for QC, crushed Dumaguete's Jonathan Lubrido; Bitoon of Cebu ripped Wilfred Vergel Neri of Aklan, and Laylo downed Regie Reginaldo of Tanjay.

Sulu earned its first gold through Ishmael Abdulnasseef who ruled the men's tunggal putra event in pencak silat over at the City High Gym. Adzar Abdulrasad of Cebu City and Ishmael Abdulgani of Zamboanga wound up second and third, respectively.

Other winners in athletics were Erika Hanna Sia of Baguio City in the women's discus throw with a distance of 32.37 meters, beating teammate Jhansel Udaundo (28.80) and Cebu City's Jade Marie Recto (26.42).

National team's Eliezar Sunang of Baguio City annexed the shotput gold for men with 15.58 throw.*with a report from PNA

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