Cordillera athletes vow better finish

AFTER crashing out of the top five in the Palarong Pambansa last year, Cordillera delegates are keen on improving their ninth place finish for this year’s national games to be held in Antique.

Department of Education’s Agustin Gumuwang, head of the Education Service Division in the Cordillera Region said athletes and coaches has vowed their commitment for a stronger finish after managing to bring home only 12 gold medals as compared to the 24 produced in 2014 and 2015.

“The coaches and athletes are more than committed for a stronger finish in the Palarong Pambansa to be held from April 23 to 29,” said Gumuwang.

Cordillera will send 470 athletes with bulk of them coming from Baguio City which topped the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association sports meet held in February earlier this years.

The region vowed to improve its dismal ninth place finish in last year’s national games held in Albay with 12 gold, 19 silver and 15 bronze medals.

It was in 2014 when the region showed vast improvement in the over-all medal standings after snatching 24 gold medals, mostly coming from archery and taekwondo, including 11 silver and 12 bronze to surprise other regions and land fifth.

Cordillera athletes then made their presence felt as it landed fourth over-all with 24 gold medals , 22 silver and 16 bronze with archery stand out Loren Chloe Baloing taking the most bemedalled athlete plum in the competition held in Tagum City.

Gumuwang added individual sports remain to be the region’s gold medal mine in the annual competition, other sports events, particularly ball games and other team events should also step up to help the region’s campaign.

Some 20 special athletes will also join the region’s bid in the annual weeklong sports competition for elementary and high school students with more than 12,000 delegates coming from 18 regions.

With the inclusion of billiards, futsal, wrestling, and wushu as regular sports, Gumuwang said the region is optimistic it can surpass its medal standings.

It was learned most athletes coming from the private schools in Baguio City played in the Private Schools Athletic Association before seeing action in last year’s Palaro which caused the dip of performance.

“We were able to talk to the private schools na sana gawing priority yung Palarong Pambansa specially the gold medalist and we thanked them for understanding that’s why we remain optimistic we will improve our medal standings,” Gumuwang quipped. (Roderick Osis)

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph