THE capital towns of La Trinidad in Benguet and Bontoc in Mountain Province secured top spots in their respective provincial sports meet, sending most of their athletes in the upcoming Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association next month.
La Trinidad bagged 193 gold medals, including 109 silvers and 80 bronze to secure the overall championship in the Benguet Provincial Athletic Meet recently.
The valley bested 12 other municipalities in the province, including Benguet State University, and retain the championship trophy.
Coming in at second is Tuba with 61 gold medals, 55 silvers and 58 bronze, while Itogon came in third after mining 39 gold medals with 53 silvers and 55 bronze as Bugiuas harvested 28 golds, 43 silvers, and 49 bronze for a decent fourth place finish.
Tublay finished fifth after bagging 24 gold and 15 silver, while Benguet State University reaped 20-32-28 even as Mankayan came up with 19-13-33 to land seventh.
In Mountain Province, Bontoc leaned on its high school squad to win the overall championship at the close of their provincial sports meet with 75-47-44, toppling Bauko 1 who came home with 55-51-59.
Tadian, which topped the elementary division with 30 gold medals, finished third overall after mustering 50-53-53, while Paracelis surprised the field after securing 50-42-56 to snatch fourth place.
Landing at fifth is Sabangan with 43-41-38, while Bauko 2 bagged 26-56-49 to land sixth.
Gold medalists in their respective events earned a ticket to Caraa hosted by the Summer Capital next month.
The City Government, in an earlier report, revealed it will spend some P8.3 million from its approved P2.255 billion annual budget.
Baguio City spent more than P12 million when the city hosted the Caraa in 2017 before the regional sports competition was hosted by Abra in 2018 and Apayao in 2019.
The weeklong competition is expected to bring over 7,000 athletes and officials from the Abra, Apayao, Kalinga, Ifugao aside from Benguet and Mt. Province and host Baguio.