READY TO RISE: Athletes from calamity-affected Bogo, Bohol all geared up for 2014 CVIRAA meet

Representatives of the different delegations competing in next week’s CVIRAA meet playfully grab ahold of the event’s overall trophy while organizers look on during a press conference held at the DepEd Cebu City Division office.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Hoping to forget the bitter memories left by tragedies last year, athletes from Bohol Province and northern Cebu are gearing up for the upcoming Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) 2014 meet in Cebu City.

The annual meet that offers slots to the Central Visayas team for this year’s Palarong Pambansa gets underway tomorrow and will run until Feb. 13.
The spotlight is expected to be on the delegations from Bohol and Bogo City, which suffered separate natural calamities late last year.
Bohol was the epicenter of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake last Oct. 15, 2013 while Bogo City was one of the most devastated areas in northern Cebu after supertyphoon Yolanda passed through the Visayas on Nov. 8, 2013.

The regional office of the Department of Education (DepEd) said the two delegations weren’t sure if they could join the meet because of the damages brought about by the calamities.
Delegation heads from both teams admitted that the training of their athletes were affected but that doesn’t mean they will be less competitive in the multi-sporting event. In fact, both teams are confident they will perform better, considering what they’ve been through last year.

“Because of the earthquake, we could outdo Cebu City, ” Bohol Province ESSD officer Alberto Mangaron III said during yesterday’s official launching of CVIRAA 2014 at the DepEd Cebu City Office. “Despite the difficulties we’ve been through, we thank God for giving us the strength and courage to face all the obstacles. We thought we could not make it here in Cebu but now that we’re here,  we will do our very best in the competition.”

DepEd Bogo City coordinator Norma Lepiten, on the other hand, is also confident that their team can recover from the tragedy brought about by supertyphoon Yolanda.
“Hopefully we can win some medals because this is our sixth year as a division of DepEd. We will do our very best to show everyone that we can rise from the calamity we experienced,” Lepiten said.

Bogo City will be composed of 384 athletes while 720 will make up the Bohol team. They will be competing in 19 different sporting events, vying for gold medals and slots to the Central Visayas  lineup for the Palarong Pambansa in Laguna on May 4 to 10.

Bohol and Bogo will be competing against teams from defending champion Cebu City, Dumaguete City, Cebu Province and Mandaue City.
This will be the first time in 14 years that Cebu City will be hosting the multi-sporting meet.

Tagbilaran City in Bohol was slated to  host  this year’s meet but owing to damage sustained from the earthquake, the venue was changed to Cebu City. It was also rescheduled from December to February because of the conflict of schedule with the Cebu City Olympics and the National Milo Little Olympics.

Yesterday’s launching was attended by DepEd Cebu City division Education Support Services Division (ESSD) chief Dr. Vivian Ginete, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, Cebu City Councilor Noel Wenceslao and DepEd Cebu City Office sports coordinator Zenaida Gocotano.