500 athletes join Cebu City Junior Olympics

GIVING HER ALL. Joreen Aina Genon of the University of Cebu competes in the discus throw event of the Milo Little Olympics at the Cebu City Sports Center.
(CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

AT LEAST 500 aspiring athletes from the Abellana National School and City Central School took part in the first annual Cebu City Junior Olympics Monthly Championships yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center.

Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) Chairman Edward Hayco expressed his joy with the heavy turnout and is expecting more schools to join next month.

The Junior Olympics was supposed to start early July but was later moved to late August due to conflict of schedules.

“The program is designed for athletes who did not make it to the intramurals, City Olympics or division meet. We call them orphan athletes,” Hayco said. “We want the orphan athletes to have an avenue to test their skills,” he added.

Among the sports being competed include gymnastics, swimming, athletics, arnis, chess, taekwondo, badminton, volleyball, dance sport, table tennis, sepak takraw, softball and dance sport.

The winners of every monthly tournament will advance to the yearly finals. But Hayco stressed that they will not be eligible to join next month’s edition to give other competitors a chance to qualify for the yearly championships.

“Every one year, we will have a finals. The winners of this month will qualify for the finals, but they can’t play in the next month so that other athletes can also win. It is basically a developmental competition for athletes,” Hayco added.