OPEN-WATER swimming, archery and air rifle shooting will make its debut when the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC)-Visayas Open 2018 resumes in the City of Naga, south Cebu today.
The second installment of the Visayas-wide grassroots sports competition is expected to draw more than 1,000 athletes vying for a spot in the year-end finals in December.
Last April, the first leg was held in Cebu City with more than 600 young athletes competing and vying for the medal in seven sporting disciplines.
Organizers from the PSC Visayas Office, headed by Regional Director Nonnie Lopez, decided to add three more events to make the competition more exciting.
Archery and air rifle shooting are both final events as well as open water swimming while regular events like boxing, arnis, karatedo, badminton, taekwondo and lawn tennis will have its second elimination also played in Naga City.
The age categories of the contact sports have been limited up to the 16-under class and competition brackets have been trimmed down to avoid delays in the competition.
For boxing the competition will be for 13-under with only three weight categories – Below 33kgs, 33-36kgs and Above 36 all for the boys and 16-under class with four weight categories for the boys and three categories for the girls.
Karatedo will have 12-under, 14-u and 16 under for the Kata competition both for boys and girls and 12-u (Below 133 cm, 133-144cm and above 144 cm) and 16-U (below 52 kgs, 52-57 kgs and above 57 kgs) for the kumite.
For arnis, the categories for the Sayaw (forms) were reduced to 12-u, 14-u and 16-u and the Sparring was limited to three categories for 12-U, 14-U and 16-U age class for both the boys and girls division.
Lopez announced that PSC Visayas has partnered with STI College for the handling of registration, documentation and results of the 2-day event.