PSC Visayas officials (from left to right) Nonnie Lopez, Boobi Kintanar and Lorenzo Chao Sy lead the launching of the two-day Visayas Open multi-sporting meet that will kick off today at various venues around the city.
CDN PHOTO/DALE ROSAL
The much-awaited first major leg of the Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) Visayas Open will kick off today at various venues around Cebu City.
The multi-sporting meet that will last until Wednesday is uniquely formatted by the PSC Visayas office to be aligned with its newly proposed three-year plan to develop not just the grassroots level in sports but also provide exposure for athletes who have not experienced competing in major events in the Visayas region.
PSC is looking to hold the Visayas Open games around ten key cities in the Visayas region until 2019.
The two-day competition today will have competitions in three age groups: 12-under, 16-under and 22-under.
Today, seven sporting events — taekwondo, karatedo, boxing, tennis, table tennis, badminton, and a demo event in judo — will be held at different venues around the city. It will pit around a thousand athletes from different local government units (LGU) in Cebu.
“We just want to show that the new administration of the PSC is not like before where armchair commissioners were not able to implement their programs during their term. Now is our chance to initiate a program aimed to develop the sport for athletes who are not able to compete in major events such as Cviraa and Palarong Pambansa,” said PSC Executive Assistant III Boobi Kintanar in a press conference yesterday at the Hotel Fortuna.
He was joined by fellow PSC Visayas officials Nonnie Lopez and Lorenzo Chao Sy.
“We are expecting around a hundred participants or more in each sports event. Just like what we announced before, the top ten athletes in each event will be qualified to the finals or the last leg of the Visayas Open in December in Iloilo City,” Lopez explained.
PSC Visayas, through the tutelage of commissioner Ramon “El Presidente” Fernandez, initiated this program this January through the PSC Visayas Open-Sinulog Fun Run.
After introducing the Visayas Open to the PSC head office in Manila, the Luzon and Mindanao offices were also encouraged to organize their own versions of the competition.
Ultimately, the Visayas Open is aimed to develop an athlete that can qualify in the Olympics since all of the events, excluding arnis, are Olympic sports.