Councilor Young wants to check if PNG overall champ Cebu City faced the best athletes
Cebu City Councilor Joy Augustus Young has always been critical with the performance of Cebu City’s athletes in multi-sporting meets.
But after Cebu City topped the recent Philippine National Games (PNG) 2018 held in different venues around Cebu the past week, Young, the Chairman of the Committee on Education, said he was satisfied with how the team performed.
“Congratulations to Cebu City [for being the champion], to the co-hosts Cebu Province for placing fourth, and Mandaue City also. Yes, I am satisfied because of course [because] we are number one. I was surprised actually because we are not used to this kind of performance in the PNG before,” said Young.
Cebu City harvested a total of 52 gold medals, 59 silvers and 71 bronze medals to best 93 other teams from around the country. It dethroned Baguio City, which finished with a 38-36-54 (gold-silver-bronze) tally, followed by Mandaluyong City (26-17-27), Cebu Province (18-18-28), and Mandaue City (18-15-11).
With the victory, Cebu City bagged the P10-million cash assistance from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and President Rodrigo R. Duterte, which is initially planned to be used for constructing sports facilities at the South Road Properties (SRP).
In the last PNG in 2016, Cebu City finished second to Baguio City.
“Maybe their performance was [good] because of homecourt advantage. We [were able to] field in as many athletes as we wanted and select the best,” Young said.
But Young, who criticized the performance of Cebu City’s athletes who represented the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) in the 2018 Palarong Pambansa in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur, wants to make sure if Cebu City was up against the best of the best in this meet.
“I have to find out if the other delegations also fielded in their best athletes. They might have sent their second best athletes,” he said. “I am not putting down the performance of our athletes. It was very satisfying to watch Cebu City stay on top. But we should always be critical and always question ourselves about our performances because this is where we base our improvements.”
Young added that he will task the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) to check on how to keep Cebu City’s athletes in top form in preparation for future meets such as the PNG in Davao next year.
“We should determine how to maintain this kind of performance and how can we work on continuing this and let’s see how it goes, especially since the PNG will now be held annually,” added Young, who expanded Cebu City’s sports program through the “school for sports” in key public schools and the summer grassroots program.