CEBU CITY Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Councilor Augustus Joy Young will lead the send-off ceremonies for the 669-strong Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) athletes who will embark on a gruelling journey to Vigan City for the 61st Palarong Pambansa from April 15 to 21.
Mayor Osmeña will give an inspirational message during the send-off ceremonies at 3 p.m. following an anticipated mass at 2 p.m.
The athletes will depart tonight at 8 p.m. for Manila onboard 2GO Shipping for 22 hours then travel another 12 hours by land to Vigan City, in Ilocos Sur.
DepEd Cebu City sports coordinator Francis Ramirez assured that the athletes will get the much-needed rest onboard 2GO’s Saint Francis Xavier ship.
“They will rest while they are in the ship and for sure they will sleep while they are on the bus, besides we will arrive in Vigan on Monday which is roughly a week before the competition so there’s enough time to recover from the long travel,” said Ramirez.
The Cviraa athletes wrapped up the 20-day unified training program put up by Cebu City at the Cebu City Sports Center in preparation for the week-long Palaro in the hopes of bouncing back strong from last year’s dismal 9th place finish in San Jose, Antique, their worst performance ever.
“We already anticipated this very long travel to Vigan that is why on Monday we will recondition the athletes in Vigan. To recover from the long travel, I will require each athlete to take a rest while traveling. We are not that worried, we’re just concerned if someone will get sick on the way to Vigan,” said University of San Carlos-Basic Education (USC-BED) athletics head coach Arvin Loberanis.
For Vilma Veloso, head coach of the vaunted Catmon Integrated School elementary girls volleyball team, a seven-time Palarong Pambansa champion, the very long travel will surely affect her players overall condition.
But, she said that they are already used to this kind of situation that is why she requires the team to workout and exercise once they are comfortably placed at the billeting area for the Cviraa delegation which is at the Santa Catalina Central School in Santa Catalina.
Cebu City athletes make up the core of the Cviraa delegation with 169 athletes, Mandaue has 87 and Bohol Province with 81 athletes. The rest comes from Cebu Province, Negros Oriental, and cities of Tagbilaran, Danao, Bayawan, Naga, Talisay, Bogo, Toledo, Carcar and Tanjay.
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