Improve or bust

AFTER failing every year to bring home the Palarong Pambansa crown, Cebu City took it upon itself to double its efforts to improve the region’s finish in the national meet this year.

The bulk of Region 7’s athletes come from Cebu and both the city and the Department of Education want to make sure they have enough preparation for the Palaro next year.

DepEd Physical Education in School Sports (Pess) Cebu City coordinator Nenita
Pardenilla said their goal will start with the early staging of the city meet and regional meet, Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa).

"The Manny Pacquiao Blog". Click here for stories and updates on the Filipino boxing champ.

The Cviraa will be held this November in Dumaguete City instead of in February.

“The last time was too close to the Palarong Pambansa, which was held in April. Next year, we will have enough time to form and train the team for the Palaro next summer,” said Pardenilla.

Pardenilla said this was pushed by Vice Mayor Joy Young, who has this vision of winning the overall title of the Palaro.

“We are setting a high goal and we will pursue that until we get it and we are also grateful for the strong support of our vice mayor, who also encouraged the team to go one step higher,” Pardenilla said.

For many years, Cviraa has been placing fourth in the overall standing of the Palaro. In 2009, it almost lost its fourth-place finish to Region 12, which was only behind by three points.

“In 2010, we did a little better. Even if we still ranked fourth, we held a good lead over the fifth placer,” said Pardenilla.

Meanwhile, the badminton players of Unit 8 towed the elementary team to dislodge Unit 6 from the top of the rankings in the first weekend.

The badminton players of Unit 8 swept all elementary division titles to post 98 points. Unit 6 was relegated to second place with 81 points.

Jess Diamante won the girls’ single, while Michael Troyo won the boys’ title.

Kaye Famador and Maria Melissa Belarmino won the girls’ doubles title, while Vincerio
Jumawan and Tsekiri Dillon won the boys’ doubles.

In the secondary division, the badminton players of University of Cebu catapulted Unit 5 to the top of the standings after winning all four titles at stake.

Unit 5 now has 85 points, followed by Unit 9 with 79.