EVEN without the medal rich wushu, Muay Thai and wrestling, Baguio City maintained its second place finish in the Philippine National Games (PNG) held in Cebu.
Baguio City took home 40 gold medals including 39 silver, and 57 bronze according to City Sports Coordinator Gaundecio Gonzales which is good for second place behind Cebu City.
Archery, arnis, and taekwondo accounted eight gold medals each while judo chipped in seven with athletics adding five, boxing turning three and triathlon, one.
Baguio judokas closed out the summer capital's campaign with Ortiz Tindaan Jr. (-55 kilogram), Brandean Binua Jr. (-60 kilogram), Jedd Andre Kim (-81 kilogram) delivering the golds in the boys category.
The overall winning local government unit (LGU) will receive P10 million in cash assistance for its sports programs, instead of the P5 million originally put up by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) after President Rodrigo Duterte doubled the prizes for the top finishers in the PNG during the opening last Saturday.
The four runner-up LGUs will bring home P8 million, P6 million, P4 million, and P2 million, respectively.
Aside from medals, winning athletes also received cash incentives and will get the chance to represent the country in international sporting events, among them the olympics, Asian Games, and Southeast Asian Games.
The weeklong PNG 2018, presented by the PSC and supported by Smart Communications and STI, served as try-outs for the selection of future national team members.
A total of 3,309 athletes, 678 coaches, and 311 officials participated in 22 sports disciplines including archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, boxing, chess, cycling, dance sport, gymnastics, judo, karatedo, mountain biking, rugby football, sepak takraw, softball, swimming, lawn and table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, indoor and beach volleyball, and weightlifting. (Roderick Osis)