THE UNIVERSITY of Cebu (UC) confirmed its participation in the 22nd Milo Little Olympics this August 24 to 27 in Cebu City.
UC athletics manager Jessica Honoridez said the Webmasters will be back to compete in the annual school-based multi sporting meet after skipping last year’s edition. The meet will be held in different venues around Cebu City.
“I am happy to announce that we are back in Milo Little Olympics and we are very excited to see our very own athletes compete in this major event,” Honoridez said.
UC skipped last year’s event due to financial problems brought about by the shift to the K-to-12 academic program.
According to Honoridez, UC will compete in the arnis, athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, football, karatedo, lawn tennis, scrabble, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball. It won’t have participants in gymnastics and sepak takraw.
Honoridez said an estimated one hundred athletes, mostly from the secondary division, will make up the Webmasters lineup for the three-day competition.
“We will mainly focus in the secondary division, but we still have some entries in the elementary division,” said Honoridez.
The Webmasters were once winners of 17 straight secondary titles in the Milo Little Olympics before they slowly lost steam in the past years, finally losing the title to rival University of San Carlos-Basic Education (USC-BED) in 2013.
Their return marks the revival of its rivalry between USC-BED, which is the defending champions in both the elementary and secondary divisions.
The 22nd Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals will feature around 6,000 athletes coming from various schools and universities from Cebu City, Dumaguete City, Bohol, Bacolod, Iloilo and Antique.
Aside from the Milo Little Olympics, UC will compete in the International Sports Fiesta on Aug. 2 to 6 in Malaysia, the World University Games on Aug. 19 to 30 in Taipei, Taiwan, and the Asia Pacific University Games, which will be hosted by Cebu this December.