Thursday, August 30, 2007 Biggest PAL Intersports opens today
THE Philippine Airlines (PAL) Intersports, the country’s top corporate sports festival, returns to its roots when its 30th championship opens here tomorrow featuring an expanded roster of 12 clubs and a new identity that highlights its role in boosting sports tourism.
Cebu governor Gwendolyn F. Garcia will lead the opening of the multi-sport games at the City Sports Club Cebu at 1 p.m. PAL senior assistant vice president Domingo T. Duerme, the tournament chairman, will declare the games open.
The colorful ceremonies will feature the parade of teams and the lighting of the symbolic torch—hallowed rites borrowed from the Olympic Games in this mini-Olympics of the corporate sector.
Over 800 athletes, all business executives and professionals from various PAL points, will take part in the three-day tournament that culminates with the crowning of the overall Intersports champion at the Grand Convention Center of Cebu on Sept. 1.
Now formally known as the “30th PAL Intersports in partnership with Island Holidays,” the tournament will have as its co-presentor Air Philippines, which will soon introduce its leisure brand Island Holidays in the local market.
The entry of Air Philippines, PAL’s partner airline in the domestic sector, widens the Intersports coverage to other points in the former’s extensive network.
Most
This year’s number of participants is the most ever in the history of the event, which was born out of simple neighborhood basketball games among a group of friends at the old Martinez Compound in this city in the early 1970s.
The first PAL Inter-Port Games, the forerunner of the Intersports, was staged here in 1975 with only three teams—Iloilo, Bacolod and host Cebu—playing each other in basketball. But over the decades the tournament evolved into the country’s largest corporate sports event.
Returning this year are the eight athletic clubs that form the core of the Intersports family—Bomberos de Davao, Caballeros de Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro Executives, Amigos de Iloilo, Hermanos de Heneral Santos, Manila Executives, Negros Executives and hosts Jefes de Cebu.
They are joined by the club from the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne—the Wallabies from Down Under—which is making its third appearance in the tournament, and new entrants Guam Geckos and Quezon City Katipuneros.
Leave
The Cotabato team, Tantawan Kutawato, is taking a leave from the Intersports this year.
The 12 clubs will contest each other in seven events: badminton, regular basketball, seniors’ basketball, billiards, bowling, tennis and golf, with the results in each counting towards the overall title.
This is the first time that seniors’ basketball, limited to players 50 years old and up, will be a regular event; in previous years, it was a side event to the centerpiece basketball competition, where the age limit is 40 years.
The Bomberos de Davao will defend their overall title, which they won with a balanced showing on hostile territory in Gen. Santos City last year—just the second time since 2001 that the home team did not bag the championship.
But the Bomberos will be hard-pressed to retain the crown this year, if the rigorous preparations of their archrivals Jefes de Cebu are any gauge.
The Cebuanos are pushing their hometown edge to the hilt by fielding the largest contingent at 105 athletes for all seven events, while the Davaoeños have just 71 players. (PR)
