DEFENDING champion Baguio City showed of its might as it practically ended the fight against the competing six provinces in the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association.
The Summer Capital is enroute to another strong finish in the weeklong competition with 138 medals from the different sports events with two more playing dates
As of 3:15 p.m. of February 6, city bets amassed 82 gold, 41 silver and 21 bronze medals mostly coming from archery, arnis, athletics, swimming, and wrestling.
The secondary squad remained unstoppable as it churned in 51 gold, 27 silver and 16 bronze medals while its elementary counterpart had 31-14-5 medal output.
Elementary athletes shut out the competition in arnis with 12 gold medals for boys and girls while netting 17 more gold medals in swimming.
Not to be outdone, the secondary squads also swept the competition with 12 gold medals in arnis while adding 14 in swimming, seven in archery, seven in athletics, six in wrestling, and four in badminton.
Baguio City sports coordinator Gaudencio Gonzales attributed the city’s performance to the exposure by local athletes in national competitions which includes Batang Pinoy and the Philippine National Games.
“Malaking bagay yung outside exposure kasi dun naming nagagauge kung saan yung aming mga athletes. I believe this will also helped out athletes improve their games,” said Gonzales.
Gonzales noted that recently, with Baguio City topping the National Batang Pinoy finals late last year, while encouraging other provinces in the Cordillera to join tournaments outside CARAA.
“We are not saying na hanggang sa CARAA at Palarong Pambansa sumasali but it would be better for other provinces to also compete outside the region to really test the skills of athletes,” added Gonzales.
Benguet trails behind with 9 - 34 - 21 in the medal standings good for second place scooping at least five gold medals in swimming, three in athletics, and one in billiard.
Mountain Province is in far third with 5-4-14 while Ifugao has 3-8-21 medal haul which is good for fourth place.
Kalinga meanwhile sits at number five with 2-10-14, while Apayao has 2-7-1, with Abra currently in last place with 2-1-5. (Roderick Osis)