THE Cebu City Niños track and field team wants to erase last year’s lowly performance with a solid presence in the upcoming 2019 Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) meet on Feb. 17 to 22 in Dumaguete City.
Despite the Niños winning its 26th straight overall title in Bohol last year, the team did not deliver much in the medal-rich track and field, watching the host Bohol Province dominate the tracks.
One of Cebu City Cviraa’s track and field coaches, Arvin Loberanis, told SunStar Cebu that they aim to bounce back from the dismal performance last year.
“Bohol Province was strong in track and field last year; we are getting ready for this year. Individually the athletes are ready. There’s no centralized training but the athletes are doing their training with mother schools,” said Loberanis.
He said that the secondary track and field team only hauled four gold medals, while about seven gold medals in the elementary class last year.
For 2019, Cebu City’s track and field team will be composed of 54 athletes coming from University of San Carlos-Basic Education Department, University of Cebu, Abellana National School and other public and private schools in Cebu City.
The tracksters will join in all the events except the pole vault and the walk competition.
“We need to increase the level of our performance to match up with the tracksters from Bohol and also in the other divisions,” he said in Cebuano.
Aside from track and field, the sports to be contested are archery, arnis, badminton, baseball, basketball, billiards, boxing, chess, football, futsal, gymnastics, pencak silat, sepak takraw, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, lawn tennis, volleyball, wrestling and wushu.
The medals in all the events will be counted to determine the overall champion. The winners in the sporting meet will qualify for the 2019 Palarong Pambansa in Davao City. (RSC)