Batang Pinoy, National Games to have ‘more foreign feel’ – PSC

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) said it is eyeing to give next year’s Batang Pinoy and Philippine National Games (PNG) a “foreign feel”.

This is in a bid to boost the overall appeal of these tournaments, which serve as a major platform for up-and-coming Filipino athletes.

In a press briefing Friday morning, PSC chairman Richard Bachmann said they started having the “more foreign feel” following the release of the new logos for the two competitions, new branding and possibly having a channel for the tournaments.

“Going around the provinces and looking at all the events, I think we, the PSC, owe it to these kids and athletes to give them a good event, a good platform for an athlete to perform,” Bachmann said.

“Hopefully they can be encouraged to aptly come out and perform. That is one way for the PSC to help, to give them an international feel, to give them media to interview them and for the events to be televised,” he added.

He expressed hope that through these initiatives, the PSC could help the athletes at the grassroots level.

“So, we can create a pool of new athletes for the country,” the chairman added.

The PNG and the Philippine youth games will run from December 17 to 22 and will be hosted in the cities of Manila and Pasig, respectively.

The PNG will cover athletes aged 18 and above, while Batang Pinoy will be for those aged 17 and below.

Sixteen- and 17-year-old athletes will be allowed to compete under Batang Pinoy, but the sub-groupings of age will be on a per-sport basis.

There will be 20 sports — archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, three-on-three basketball, boxing, chess, cycling, dancesports, esports, gymnastics, karatedo, lawn tennis, sepak takraw, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, beach volleyball, weightlifting and wushu.

Bachmann said for esports, popular handheld game Mobile Legends will be the only event in the tournament.

Meanwhile, Bachmann said the PSC is also aiming to build and repair more regional training centers.

Bachmann said several local government units have reached out to the PSC to build their own training centers.

He welcomed this development.“With these regional training centers, there are a lot of LGUs interested in putting up their own facility. We met with the Bangsamoro [on Thursday.] They asked for help because they seem to be lagging behind in the Palarong Pambansa,” Bachmann said.

“A lot of LGUs already are asking for help in building their own facility. That is perfect. There should be… every Filipino in every province should have access to a facility for them to improve in any sport they choose,” he added.