6th Olango Challenge unfurls this am

CEBU, Philippines - The sixth edition of Olango Challenge, the country's premiere open water competition, gets underway at 11am today with over a hundred fun and competitive swimmers seeing action at Crimson Resort and Spa in Lapu-Lapu City.

Loren Dale Echavez is back to defend her title in the 6-kilometer division, while defending men's champion Kiefer Ticao is also expected to show up.

A lot of triathletes are also counted in for today's battle as part of their preparation for the Ironman Philippines 70.3 at Shangri-la Resort and Spa this August.

Aside from having a new venue, this year's staging of the annual charity event also features a new course design. It is patterned by how the tide goes by noontime.

Cash prizes, trophies and medals await the top performers.

More than winning or finishing the race, the real challenge for the participants is to help raise funds for the benefit of the poor children of Olango Island.

The organizing Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) hopes to build more classrooms in Olango.

Education is one of the priority programs of PBSP that is why it fully supports the Bayanihang Pampaaralan (BP) campaign, a private sector-led initiative under the 57-75 consortium. BP aims to build 10,000 new classrooms to reduce the 66,800-classroom backlog in the country. (FREEMAN)