In this CDN file photo, Joreen Aina Genon of UC is seen throwing the metal disc during the secondary girls discus throw competition in last year’s Milo Little Olympics at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC). CDN FILE
UC to use upcoming Milo Regionals to assess performances of athletes
The University of Cebu (UC) is preparing early for the 31st Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals, but its goal is not mainly to regain the title but to help its athletes measure their skills for future competitions.
Table tennis coach turned department head for athletics of the University of Cebu (UC) Jessica Honoridez said in an interview with Cebu Daily News that the school is determined to find out what needs to be done to improve the performances of its athletes and that the Milo sporting event will be the perfect venue to check on their status.
“Our ultimate goal for this meet is to gauge the performances of our athletes, measure their level so that they can improve for the major meets like the Cebu City Olympics, Central Visayas Regional Athletics Association meet, and the Palarong Pambansa,” Honoridez said.
The annual multisporting meet is scheduled from August 30 to September 2 in Cebu City. Honoridez said this meet is as important as others because this is the first major competition of this school year.
UC was a perennial champion in the secondary division until 2013 when the University of San Carlos-Basic Education (USC-BED) dethroned the Webmasters. Since then, UC has failed to secure the secondary title.
In last year’s competition, UC finished second. Honoridez said the result was because of lack of preparation of UC’s athletes because they had little time to prepare.
“We skipped for a year (on 2016) and after that we were undecided to join. Eventually, we decided to compete, but we had very little time to prepare so we didn’t have any assurance if we can perform well,” said Honoridez, who took office as the athletic department head of the Webmasters in May of 2017, replacing Atty. Baldomero Estenzo. “But we were still glad that we placed second after all.”
This year, the team started training early, which means it could have a better finish this time.
“After Milo last year, I sat down with (UC president) Atty. (Augusto) Go and we agreed to compete in this year’s Milo Little Olympics. So we were able to prepare for it since early of this year compared to last year where we only trained for a month,” added Honoridez.
Honoridez is yet to determine the total number of athletes they will field in for Milo Little Olympics.
She said UC will compete in three more sporting events: gymnastics, scrabble and lawn tennis. The Milo Little Olympics has 15 sporting events and Honoridez said UC will be pitting its athletes in athletics, swimming, badminton, karatedo, taekwondo, volleyball secondary girls, table tennis, and chess. She reiterated that the goal is to measure their skills.
“We do not pressure them to win the title back. We just want them to assess themselves where they are at in this level of competition so that they can further improve their skills for the bigger competitions,” she said.
The Webmasters are known to be strong in athletics, swimming, chess, table tennis, and taekwondo. Honoridez hopes UC can improve in other sporting events this time.