Iloilo City—With just around a hundred athletes competing, the two-time defending champions University of San Carlos-Basic Education Department (USC-BED) may have a tough time defending its title. But that doesn’t mean the Baby Warriors won’t fight.
The Cebuano powerhouse team starts its title-retention bid in the 20th Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals today in various sporting venues here in the capital city of Western Visayas.
The two-time defending champion USC–BED is expected to have a tough time in Iloilo, which is hosting the annual multi-sporting meet for the first time. Cebu has hosted the event in the past 19 years.
USC–BED track and field head coach Arvin Loberanis said the pressure started to build up when the powerhouse University of Cebu (UC) decided to skip the meet to give way to the school’s annual intramurals. Without UC’s athletes, all eyes are on the Baby Warriors to carry Cebu’s charge.
According to Loberanis, USC-BED’s chances to retain its title became slimmer because the school only sent around a hundred athletes, a far cry from the 400 plus athletes they usually pit in previous meets.
“I think we have a 60 percent chance to retain the title because we have fewer athletes,” Loberanis said. “If UC joined the competition, we won’t be that worried because they can create a balance in the competition against the Ilonggos.”
He said the Ilonggos will be the team to beat mainly because of home court advantage. Another reason is because of the huge number of athletes they will be fielding in. This will work to their advantage since the competition will use the points system, where each medalist, even up to the fourth and fifth placers, can earn corresponding points that can contribute to a school’s general championship points.
This means the more the athletes a team sends, the bigger the chances of winning the title.
Despite the tough challenge, Loberanis said USC-BED is confident the team will do its best to retain its title and go for a three-peat.
Aside from USC-BED, also competing for Cebu are the UC Webmasters, who will be seeing action in taekwondo and table tennis. The Cebuano delegation will also rely on its multi awarded football teams composed of secondary division defending champions PAREF Springdale and reigning elementary division winner Don Bosco Technology Center (DBTC). Other noted schools seeing action are the Abellana National School and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC).
The meet formally started yesterday at the Iloilo City Sports Complex. The opening was attended by around 4,000 athletes. The lighting of the urn was done by Western Visayas Palarong Pambansa gold medalists Niel Ace Lozada (arnis), Nathaniel Balajadia (arnis), Rowel Christian Derecho (athletics) and Erwin Carter (athletics).