Francis Ramirez choreographing Cebu City’s athletes during the CVIRAA 2023 opening ceremony in Carcar City, south Cebu. | Photo from Sugbuanong Kodaker
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The perennial champions and the host team of the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA), the Cebu City Niños, will field a total of 524 athletes for the week-long meet from May 4-9 in various venues, here.
The total number of athletes was revealed by its delegation head Francis Ramirez on Thursday during the reopening of the new-look Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) Olympic-sized pool where CVIRAA’s swimming competition would be held.
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According to Ramirez, the Niños’ delegation is comprised of athletes and teams from different Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (Cesafi) member schools and public schools.
These Cesafi member schools include the reigning Cebu City Olympics champions, the University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters along with the University of San Carlos (USC), University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), University of the Visayas (UV) along with public schools in Abellana National School, Cebu City Don Carlos A. Gothong Memorial National High School, and the City Central Elementary School to name a few.
For Ramirez, he saw the determination and perseverance of Cebu City’s athletes after witnessing them training vigorously despite the absence of proper facilities since the CCSC has still been under renovation, particularly its rubberized track oval for over a year already.
According to Ramirez, he is proud to say that they are well-prepared to defend their ‘homecourt’ against 19 other delegations in the meet which serves as the qualifiers for the Palarong Pambansa this July in Cebu City.
“For the past months atong mga bata sige man ug training inspite atong pool ug oval wala pa nahuman, sige gihapon pangitag paagi asa sila maka practice. Plus the home court advantage makaingon ta ma kuha gihapon nato ang title,” said Ramirez.
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“Naay mga individual sports nato nga tan-aw nako modaog gyud ta like ball games, swimming ug athletics, pero ilaha gyud paningkamotan makuha, with the absence of our training facilities, but they will do their best to perform.”
(We have our individual sports that I see that we can really win like ball games, swimming and athletics, but that is they will work hard to get it, with the absence of our training facilities, but they will do their best to perform.)
The Cebu City Niños dominated last year’s CVIRAA in Carcar City combining 110 gold medals with 93 silvers, and 84 bronze medals from 30 sporting events, surpassing its 2019 pre-pandemic medal count of 78-63-64 (gold-silver-bronze).
Meanwhile, Cebu Province came in second with its 40-36-49 medal count, while Dumaguete City closed in at third with its 38-31-44 medal tally. Mandaue (36-30-51) and Lapu-Lapu City (32-30-33) finished fourth and fifth places, respectively.
The sixth to 10th placers in the medal tally were Bohol Province (25-26-46), Bayawan City (23-11-14), Tagbilaran City (20-30-30), Negros Oriental (18-33-32), and Toledo City (11-13-14), respectively.