530-member Davao City team all set for over-all title-defense
-A A +ATuesday, January 8, 2013
THE 530-member Davao City delegation is all set to defend the over-all championship when the 2013 Davao Region Athletic Association (Davraa) Meet gets underway on February 24 to March 1 in Tagum City.
Department of Education (DepEd)-Davao City Physical Education and School Sports (Pess) supervisor Jimmy Cerojales, in text messages to Sun.Star Davao on Monday, said: "We are 98 percent confident to defend the over-all title but we can't determine this early which city teams will lead the medal haul for us."
He said the city athletes will hold quartering at Davao City National High School on February 1 to 20 for their training. They will leave on February 21 via commissioned passenger buses.
Cerojales said the Davao City Athletic Association (DCAA) will field entries in all events entered in elementary and high school divisions including athletics, arnis, archery, badminton, basketball, baseball, boxing, chess, football, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, sipa, sepak takraw, softball and swimming.
The city delegation's stint in the regional meet costs over P4 million covering transportation fares, meals, training, uniforms, equipment, allowances and operational expenses, among others.
It can be recalled that Davraa, bannered mainly by Davao City athletes, dropped to 10th over-all in the 2012 Palarong Pambansa held in Lingayen, Pangasinan. The region was seventh over-all in 2011 Palaro held in Dapitan City.
A major setback in last year's selection of Palaro-bound Davraa athletes though was the holding of the Davraa Meet in pitiful and sub-standard venues in Compostela Valley. Thus, highly-touted Davao City teams were not able to perform as expected in most team events that stake bigger points in determining a delegation's over-all standing in the annual Palaro.
With the newly-constructed multi-million sports complex in Tagum City, it is hoped that the staging of the 2013 Davraa Meet will be much in order and smooth-sailing unlike the 2012 Comval hosting that was hit by controversies.
Top Davraa performers will earn slots to the regional delegation that will see action in the 2013 Palaro slated April 14 to 20 in Dumaguete City.
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on January 08, 2013.
Sports
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