At least 6,000 young athletes will gather at the Speaker Ramon V. Mitra Sports Complex at Puerto Princesa, Palawan on August 25 for the Batang Pinoy National Championships’ opening ceremony. | Mars G. Alison
PUERTO PRINCESA, PALAWAN, Philippines — Close to 6,000 athletes coming from 243 local government units (LGUs) are expected to gather at the Speaker Ramon V. Mitra Sports Complex for the opening of the Batang Pinoy National Championships Sunday afternoon, August 25, 2019.
This year’s finale of the Batang Pinoy is jointly hosted by the City of Puerto Princesa and the Province of Palawan with competitions to officially start on August 26 and run until August 31.
The Batang Pinoy is the sports development program mandated by Executive Order No. 44 as a platform for friendly competition for in-school and out-of-school Filipino youth aged 15 and below. It also serves as one of talent identification programs of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).
Last year’s host Baguio City took the overall title with a gold-silver-medal haul of 83-81-107. Cebu City came in second overall after accumulating a medal count of 36-40-44 while Laguna Province rounded up the top 3 with a medal tally of 34-13-31.
Completing the top 6 were Quezon City (29-16-18), Pangasinan Province (24-24-25) and Cebu Province (23-8-20).
This week-long multi-sporting event is a gathering of the best of the best athletes representing their LGUs as only the top 3 finishers or those who had the best finishes in the regional finals will be competing here.
31 sports events
The young athletes will be competing in 31 sporting events—archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, billiards, boxing, chess, cycling, dancesport, futsal, gymnastics, judo, karatedo, lawn tennis, muay thai, pencak silat, rugby football, sepak takraw, softball, soft tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, duathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
Aside from the Speaker Ramon V. Mitra Sports Complex, other venues for the games are Robinson’s Place Palawan, ESJ Badminton Court, Palawan State University, Palawan National School, Kudos Entertainment, Mendoza Park, Puerto Princesa Balayong Park, Sta. Monica Track, Western Philippines University, Salvador P. socrates Government Complex, Palawan Provincial Capitol, SM City Puerto Princesa, NCCC Mall, Puerto Princesa Baywalk, Asia B Sports Club, PALECO Gym, Blue Palawan, San Jose Covered Court and Holy Trinity University.
Delegations are billeted in 16 public schools here.
Aside from the PSC officials to be led by chairman William “Butch” Ramirez, education secretary Leonor Briones will also be one of the specials guests representing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte./dbs