‘Grand slam is never enough’

IT may have won a grand slam in the national finals of the Milo Little Olympics, but it doesn’t mean that Team Visayas will stop looking for areas to improve.

The Visayas team won its third straight title in the national finals, but they have looked at areas where they are weak and found out that they could still improve in the athletics event.

This year, Visayas head Ricky Ballesteros said they are hoping Palarong Pambansa athletic powerhouse Western Visayas will help boost the team.

“We aim to have a more solid athletics team as tracksters from Western Visayas are expected to join the Visayas elimination of the 17th Milo Little Olympics on Aug. 24 at the Cebu City Sports Center,” said Ballesteros.

The national finals will be in October in Manila.

Despite winning the over-all ranking in the nationals in Pangasinan, Visayas only won the secondary boys title. It finished with the second runner-up honors in the secondary and elementary girls divisions and third in the elementary boys side.

Meanwhile, Ballesteros has been named the best organizer and the Visayas leg has been named the best organized Milo Little Olympics. But again, Ballesteros will not rest on his laurels. He hopes to add another feather in his cap as he hopes to break the record number of participating schools in the Visayas leg.

“We aims to attract more than 200 schools so that we could get more competitive athletes. That is why we are extending the registration until Aug. 15, Wednesday, to accommodate more schools,” said Ballesteros.

The multi-sporting event will run from Aug. 24-27 until Sept.1 and 2, 2012.

This year, the football tournament will be tweaking its format and will use the 11-aside format, instead of the 7-aside event. This is in line with Nestle’s plans to send the champion team to an Asean School Football Tournament, which will be hosted by the country this year.

In the last national finals, the football elementary and high school titles went to Don Bosco College.

There will be a solidarity meeting among coaches and school heads on Aug. 18, 1 p.m. at the Cebu City Sports Center.