TEAM Cebu City is already guaranteed a spot in the overall Top 3 and if there will be no major shake-ups in the overall medal ranking the team has a huge chance to win the overall title in the 2018 Philippine National Games (PNG).
Cebu City had a slow day with only two gold medals in the penultimate day yesterday but still holds the overall lead with 41 gold medals, 52 silvers and 54 bronzes in the unofficial medal tally from the Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) as of 6 p.m yesterday.
The gold medalists for Cebu City yesterday were Zethley Mae Alferez and Norman Joseph Enriquez in the tennis mixed doubles at the City Green Tennis Court. Dexter Bolambao also won gold in the live stick sparring bantam weight class in arnis competition at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex.
Cebu City still has athletes who will be competing today in various events, including the medal-rich dancesports, which has a total of 12 gold medals at stake at the Robinson’s Galleria Atrium.
The other events that Cebu City will be counting on the final day are arnis, boxing, badminton, chess, sepak takraw, softball, tables tennis, lawn tennis, triathlon and volleyball.
But in the official results released by Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) at 4 p.m., Cebu City holds a slim lead with a 33-48-50 gold-silver-bronze medal haul followed by Baguio City, which has 31-29-37.
Mandaluyong City is at third place with 22-12-13, while General Santos City was far behind with 16-22-25 followed by Zamboanga City at 14-6-13.
With the way things are going, the best finish for Cebu City will be winning the overall title but if there will be major rise from Baguio City and Mandaluyong City, they could end up second or third.
Going to the final day, CCSC chairman Ed Hayco has a piece of advice to the remaining athletes for Cebu City.
“To the athletes, don’t be complacent, it’s still anyone’s game,” he said.
The overall LGU champion will win P10 million worth of sporting assistance from the PSC and the office of the President. PSC is shelling out P5 million for the champion but President Rodrigo Roa Duterte announced in the opening ceremony that he will double the prize.
The second placer will get P8 million, the third placer gets , P6 million and the fourth and fifth placers get P4 million and P2 million, respectively.
Hayco said that the overall performance of Cebu City athletes was overwhelming and unexpected. He said that the athletes are volunteers in the CCSC grassroots sports program.
“The medals won by these athletes feel much heavier because they are all grassroots volunteers,” said Hayco. “The heart to help others comes first, the medals will just follow.”
Cebu City had a total of 147 medals with bulk of the medalists coming from track and field team, which racked up 12 gold medals, 18 silvers and 13 bronzes.
The other contributors were archery (1-2-2), arnis (3-1-2), cycling (3-2-4), gymnastics (2-6-2), karatedo (2-5-8), lawn tennis (2-2-2), rugby (0-1-1), swimming (4-7-4), table tennis (1-3-2), taekwondo (7-4-12), triathlon (0-0-2), and weightlifting (4-1-0).