Athletes leap during a hurdles event in the elementary division of the CVIRAA. | Photo from Sugbuanong Kodaker/Lito Tecson
CEBU CITY, Philippines — In the contests and competitions in basic education under the Department of Education (Deped), the students have to compete in various levels before they get into the nationals.
For sports, there is a competition for the District Meet which is participated by the schools in a specific district of a city or municipality.
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Then, the winners of the District Meet will be competing in the Division Meet which is participated by all the schools in a city or municipality.
Now, in order to qualify for the nationals, the contestants must compete in the regionals.
In sports, the most anticipated regional sports competition in Region 7 is the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association Meet or CVIRAA.
This coming May 4 to 9, Cebu City will be hosting the CVIRAA Meet after 10 years.
What is CVIRAA?
John Pages, chairman of the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC), describes CVIRAA as the regional meet of Region 7.
Pages said that this level is “very important” because the athlete cannot proceed to the national meet or the Palarong Pambansa unless they qualify in the CVIRAA.
“If you aspire to compete and to (win a) medal in the Palaro, you have to go through the CVIRAA,” Pages told CDN Digital during the press conference of CVIRAA on April 29, Monday in Cebu City.
Pages added that this regional event would be “very important” in Cebu City because the last time the event was held here was in 2014.
Moreover, Pages said that another significant part of this year’s CVIRAA would be the venue of the sports events.
He said that 90 percent of the CVIRAA venues would be the same venues for the Palarong Pambansa which would still be hosted by Cebu City in July.
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Pages said that there would be changes for the venues for Football, the Track events, and Boxing, among others.
“This will give all of us, the local organizers, an opportunity to go through the whole experience with almost the same number of athletes from 8,500 to 12,000 delegates as the Palaro,” said Pages.
The commissioner added that after the CVIRAA there would be “a lot of improvements” that they would be able to apply for the national meet.
Approximately 12,000 participants including athletes, coaches, and officials from across the region are expected to be present during the event.
The opening ceremony will take place at the South Road Properties and will start as early as 4 p.m. for the assembly and parade, then at 6 p.m. will be the official start of the opening of CVIRAA Meet 2024.