Zapatera Integrated Sped School bags Olympics for Special Children championship trophy

Students from the Zapatera Integrated Sped School won the championship trophy in this year’s Olympics for Special Children. | Gerard Vincent Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Zapatera Integrated Sped School (ZISS) was declared overall champion in the Olympics for Special Children after amassing a medal tally of 24 gold medals, 16 silvers and nine bronzes.

The 27  ZISS athletes, who were either visually impaired, had intellectual disabilites or autism, outshined others like them who came from 11 other Department of Education (DepEd) Special Education (Sped) centers in Cebu City.

The one-day event was held earlier today, August 17, at the Cebu City Sports Center with 110 Special Education (Sped) athletes coming from 12 DepEd Sped Centers in attendance.

“Ang Zapatera jud performing jud mi kaayo, so very competitive kaayo ning atong mga bata. As a matter of fact naa na gali ta napadala didto sa Palarong Pambansa,” said Dolores N. Pepino, one of teachers of ZISS.

Contestant play the game Bocce during the SPED Olympics held this morning. |Gerard Vincent Francisco

(Our athletes at Zapatera (Integrated Sped School) were performing making them very competitive. As a matter of fact, we were already able to send athletes to the Palarong Pambansa.)

Finishing second overall was Bulacao A with a medal haul of 10-10-9 and on the third spot was Pardo A with a 5-4-5 medal tally. Guadalupe and Guba shared the fourth spot with one silver and one bronze each while rounding up the top 5 was Labangon with one silver.

Five ZISS athletes finished with three gold medals apiece. They were Palaro players Ivan Odiver, Silvano Cabajar and James Cadavid, Clarissa Jumaos and Jessamyn Polancos. Odiver had even competed in the Special Olympics in the US.

Cebuana Olympian Mary Joy Tabal lights the torch to formally open this year’s SPED Olympics. |Gerard Vincent Francisco

Contributing two gilts each were John Mark Bandilla, Therese Jumawan, Ivy Cabello and  Dernel Jane Sabandal, also a Palaro player.

The rest of the gold medals were handed in by Bernard Baron and Hannah Sanchez.

“This is a race that will change their entire life. The trainings paid off. As you can see, the children are not tense of the competition,” said John Philip Dueñas who has been handling the special training program of the Sped athletes along with Cebu Olympian Mary Joy Tabal.

The special training program and the Olympics for Special Children are a project of the Quota International of Metro Cebu (QIMC) in partnership with the DepEd.

After they competed, the special olympics participants were also given a brand new pairs of rubber shoes by another donor. /dcb