CVIRAA sets ‘realistic’ goal for Palaro

CEBU, Philippines — After slumping to its worst finish ever at ninth place overall, the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) aims for a much realistic goal in this year’s Palarong Pambansa, that is to land at No.4 spot in the annual sports conclave set on April 15-21  in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.

“Of course, everybody wants to be No.1.  But right now, we’ll just go for a more realistic target that from No.9, we will be the No.4, then we will work our way up again,” said Cebu City Councilor Joy Agustus Young in yesterday’s press conference at the Port Restaurant in Waterfront Cebu Hotel and Casino.

As far as he can recall, Young said Central Visayas has never topped the Palaro. Its best showing was a second-place finish when Cebu City hosted the multi-sport athletic meet in 1994.

“Wa pa gyud ta kapildi aning Manila (National Capital Region). Hopefully we’ll get there, but we have to start somewhere,” said Young.

“We are making a big effort of this because we want to show and make them feel that we are one and hand in hand we will hopefully reach our target for Palaro which is to get back at number four,” said Young.

With that lofty goal at hand, the Cebu City government in partnership with the Cebu City Sports Commission under the dynamic leadership of Ed Hayco spearhead a unified training program not only for its own Palaro-bound athletes, but for all CVIRAA qualified bets.

The said training has already started last weekend but will go full blast next week. This will run approximately two weeks before the athletes’ departure to Palaro. The athletes will train two times a day.

The core of the CVIRAA contingent is from Cebu City, while the rest are from Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, Cebu Province, Naga, Talisay, Bayawan, Danao, Tanjay, Negros Oriental, Dumaguete, Tagbilaran and Bohol Province.

Bohol delegates already confirmed their participation. The team is composed of 100 coaches and athletes who will arrive next week, while the delegates from Dumaguete have yet to confirm.

The training will be handled together with the Cebu City Sports Commission’s coaches and their own coaches for the Palaro for two weeks. They will be housed at CCSC.

CCSC will serve as the main training ground and will cater the venue for the trainings of athletics, badminton, swimming, football, boxing, taekwondo and gymnastics while other sports will be played in other venues.

Meal allowance will be provided by the Cebu City government said Young even those that are not under their division.

Aside from the training, the Palaro-bound athletes will also be doing tune-up games to either collegiate squads or commercial teams here.

With the unified training, the athletes will not only be monitored well, they will also develop the spirit of unity and camaraderie.

Cebu City Schools sports coordinator Francis Ramirez said the DepEd-7 officials and all division superintendents have expressed their appreciation on Cebu City’s efforts in training the athletes for a much better performance in the Palaro.

Meanwhile, to improve Cebu City public school’s performance in next year’s CVIRAA meet, DepEd has tapped CCSC to strengthen the school’s preparation via the School for Sports Program.

“School for Sports program is a sports tramp for students. It was an experimental program that we started last year and currently we have 500 students under the program. In this program, we are going to identify who are winners of the Unit Meet and City Olympic games for the last three years in elementary division. We will enlist them to be part of the training program,” said Hayco.

Hayco added that they will expand the program to various strategic locations in Barangay Inayawan, Mambaling, Labangon, Talamban and Zapatera this year. He added that they are also planning to hire 50 professional coaches to train the students.— Gloreitta T. Lariosa