Fifteen-year-old Lorenzo Jenkins Labao of Baguio City caught two more gold medals from the pool yesterday to become the most bemedalled athlete in the meet with seven titles in the Batang Pinoy national finals at Panaad Park and Stadium here.

The shy, soft-spoken Labao surprised everyone even himself after his masterful sweep of his events considering that Baguio City wasn't known as a swimming superpower because of its cold climate.

"Because it's too cold in Baguio, only a few of us really excelled because only a few us showed hardwork and determination to continue training in cold waters," said the third year high from University of Baguio Preparatory School.

He completed his collection with the boys 13-15 100-meter butterfly and 200m individual medley. He has strung up victories in 400m free, 50m butterfly, 400m IM and the 200m medley and freestyle relays along with Dan Christian Leyba, Renz Gawidan and Neil Nazarro.

But it was still Quezon City which wound up with most triumphs in medal-rich swimming with 14 golds, propelled by Raissa Gavino and Kirsten Chloe Daos who accounted for three victories each.

Baguio City chalked 10 golds, while Davao City, Manila, Lucena and Bohol bagged five gold medals each.

In triathlon held early in the morning, Sta. Rosa, Laguna's Julius Constantino scored an upset over national pool reserve Frederick Albert Chiongbian of Cebu City when he bagged the boys gold medal.

Constantino, 15, peeled way in the third and last lap around the oval in bike stage to clock 27 minutes covering 400m swim, 8.4km bike and 2k run event. He bested Chiongbian (27:34) who is being considered for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing this year. Cainta's Sam Ranque was third (27:49).

The 5-foot-9 Constantino, who studies at Colegio de San Agustin, padded his lead in the run event to score his first medal in meet after placing fourth last BP.

Twelve-year-old Nicole Eijansantos of Quezon City also pulled a surprise win herself when she left everybody behind in swim stage to dominate the girls side in 29:50, besting older rivals Lauren Justine Plaza of Binan, Laguna (30:05) and Victoria Deldio of Olongapo (30:39).

Eijansantos, a six-grader from School of the Holy Spirit, led from start to finish and said it was a very tough race for her but was relieved to win the gold on her first BP appearance.

Iloilo City captured nine of the 12 gold medals at stake in arnis anyo competitions or forms. Crystal AJ Bartonico accounted for three of them namely girls single weapon solo, double weapon solo and sword and dagger solo.

Over at Negros Occidental National High School grounds, World Series veteran Iloilo defeated Gen. Santos City (14-2) and Bacolod (6-0) to post its fourth win in the seven-team girls softball event.

The Little League Asia Pacific/Middle East champ needs one more win to secure top spot and outright finals berth in the single-round Page system where the second - and third-ranked teams battle it out for last final slot.*PNA

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