TWO additional delegations have been added to the official delegations of the Palarong Pambansa 2024.
In a press conference on Friday, June 28, 2024, Department of Education Assistant Superintendent for the Cebu City Division, Adolf Aguilar, announced that the National Academy for Sports and Philippine schools from overseas will be participating in selected events of the Palarong Pambansa 2024.
Aguilar said with the additional participants, there will now be 19 participating delegations.
When asked how it will affect the medal standing for the competition, considering many of their athletes are elites, Aguilar assured that it would have a limited effect.
“The National Academy for Sports will only be participating in selected events. So, it will have a limited effect,” he said.
He, however, did not specify which events these are.
Aguilar also announced that Dance Sports will now be included as a regular sport, meaning the winners will be included in the official tally and will receive medals.
He added that all games will be streamed online, with 60 monitors capturing all playing venues. The monitors will be installed at the old badminton court at the Cebu City Sports Center.
When asked if the scores will be transmuted manually or digitally, Aguilar said the medal tallying system would remain the same as used during the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa).
“The medal tally will still be by regions. You will see how many golds Region 7, Region 8, etc., have. But if you click the details, you can find information on the athlete winning the gold, including their school, division, and city,” he explained.
He mentioned a special addition, which will include a tally by towns and cities, highlighting the names of the athletes.
During the Cviraa, only the number of golds per region was highlighted.
“For Cebu Palaro, we want to recognize the athlete and the school behind each medal,” Aguilar said.
He added that they will rank the five divisions that produce the most gold medals.
Another first for this year’s Palarong Pambansa is that they will declare an overall champion per sport.
“There will be many trophies and awards for each delegation this time around,” Aguilar said in Cebuano. / AML