Given the official inclusion of dancesport as a regular sport in the upcoming Palarong Pambansa 2024 in Cebu City, courtesy of a Department of Education (DepEd) memorandum issued on April 15, 2024, Davao del Norte, the third-placer, has overtaken perennial runner-up Tagum City for the overall second spot in the Davao Region Athletic Association (Davraa) Meet 2024.
This will be the first time Davao del Norte will secure the second position ahead of Tagum City, which will be relegated to third place for the first time.
DepEd Davao regional director Allan Farnazo, in a Viber interview with SunStar on Tuesday evening, April 16, confirmed that dancesport medals will now be included in the regular sports medal tally for the regional meet.
“We agreed with Davao del Norte and Tagum that a first runner-up had to be declared during the closing ceremony, pending the official memo on dancesport’s inclusion as a regular sport. We also agreed that if the memo is issued before the Palarong Pambansa, we have to amend it,” Farnazo said.
However, he clarified that there will be no trophy exchanges. He instructed his staff to prepare another trophy for Davao del Norte to acknowledge their hard work and achievement as the rightful runner-up.
He added, “Wala nay bawiay, dili man ta ingon-ana (No trophy exchange will happen, we are not like that). As an RD, they are like my children. Giving Davao del Norte its first runner-up trophy is a win-win solution. It’s nobody’s fault that the memo came out late.“
Rey Solitario, the DepEd Davao City Division superintendent, and Giovanni Gulanes, the Davao del Norte provincial sports coordinator, revealed through separate Facebook Messenger chats that Allan Farnazo, the DepEd Davao regional director, already informed the delegations that medals from dancesport, previously a demonstration sport, will now be counted in the total medal tally for the regular sports category.
Gulanes said, "Dugay na giannounce nga regular na. Pero it was found out nga wala pa diay official memo during Davraa, pero naa na approved resolution sa national board. (It was announced a while back that dancesport had become a regular sport. However, it was discovered that there was no official memo during the Davraa event, although there was already an approved resolution by the national board)."
DepEd Davao region has yet to release the updated official medal tally, which will now include the dancesport medals.
"Wait lang kami from the regional office to release the memo on the updated tally (We will wait for the DepEd regional office to release the memo on the updated tally)," Solitario said.
With an impressive haul of 12 gold medals and 11 bronzes in dancesport, Davao del Norte, initially tallying 61 golds, 50 silvers, and 70 bronzes, will now finish with 73 golds, 50 silvers, and 81 bronzes, securing the second-place position.
Meanwhile, Tagum City will drop to third place, adding just one more bronze to achieve a total of 62 golds, 55 silvers, and 48 bronzes.
The overall champion, Davao City, further strengthens its tally to 165 golds, 127 silvers, and 113 bronzes, with an additional contribution of 12 golds and 11 bronzes from the dancesport team.
Panabo City will maintain its fourth position, adding five golds and seven silvers to achieve a total of 27 golds, 38 silvers, and 36 bronzes. In fifth place, Digos City earned 10 dancesport bronzes, bringing its overall tally to 16 golds, 34 silvers, and 47 bronzes.
Davao del Sur secured one bronze in dancesport, maintaining the eighth spot with a tally of 10 golds, 21 silvers, and 37 bronzes.
Sixth-placer Davao de Oro (15-30-59), seventh-placer Mati City (11-15-16), ninth-placer Island Garden City of Samal (8-7-8), 10th-placer Davao Occidental (7-9-19), and 11th-placer Davao Oriental (5-9-29) will not be impacted by the medal tally update since they did not win any medals in dancesport. MLSA
