Cebu City team favorites to win CVIRAA 2015

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Cebu City Niños will be gunning for the overall title for the 23rd straight year as the 2015 Central Visayas Regional Athletics Association (CVIRAA) Meet kicks off in Balamban, a town located southwest and about an hour and a half drive from Cebu City.

It has been a decade since the Cebu Province hosted a CVIRAA Meet. In 2005 the meet was held at Dumanjug, a southern town of Cebu.

The CVIRAA Meet is the regional sporting competition organized by DepEd for elementary and secondary students and will serve as the selection for the team who will represent Central Visayas in the Palarong Pambansa, which is slated for May 2015 in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.

With all 19 school divisions in Central Visayas represented in this year’s regional sports meet, Vivian Ginete, chief of the Resource Mobilization, Special Programs and Projects of the Department of Education in Region 7 (DepEd-7), said that about 9,000 athletes, coaches and officiating officials are expected in Balamban.

Aside from Cebu City, the host Cebu Province will also be represented. Other delegates will come from Mandaue City, City of Talisay Cebu, City of Naga Cebu, Carcar City, Toledo City, Bogo City, Danao City, Lapu-Lapu City, Tagbilaran City, Bohol Province, Siquijor, Dumaguete City, Tanjay City, Bayawan City, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental and Bais City.

Because there are only a few schools in Balamban, some of the delegations will be billeted in neighboring cities and towns like Toledo City and Asturias town.

“All 19 school divisions are represented but not all of them will be competing in all events,” said Ginete noting the participation of the divisions.

Student athletes will be seeing action in 21 sporting events, four of which are demo sports. The main events are Archery, Arnis, Athletics, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Chess, Football, Gymnastics, Sepak Takraw, Sepak Takraw Jr. (Sipa), Softball, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Lawn Tennis and Volleyball.

The demo sports are Futsal for secondary girls, and Billiards, Wrestling and Wushu, for all secondary divisions. A SPED Olympics will also be held for those under the Special Education Program of DepEd. Events to be contested are athletics and swimming.

All games will be held in Balamban except for swimming which will be held at the Cebu City Sports Center as there is no olympic-size pool in Balamban.

The processing of athletes’ credentials has been ongoing since Friday, February 20 while delegations have started arriving Saturday, February 21 in time for Tuesday’s solidarity meeting of coaches, tournament managers and officiating officials.

Although the Opening Ceremonies will be held February 26, games will begin Wednesday, February 25 in most of the sporting events especially the ball games which have to undergo eliminations.

The Opening Ceremonies, which will be held at the Mayor E.S. Binghay Sports Oval, will be graced by Assistant Secretary of Legal and Legislative Affairs of DepEd, Tonisito Umali, who aside from giving a message will formally declare the CVIRAA 2015 open.

Joining Umali are DepEd-7 officials, Cebu Province Gov. Hilario Davide III, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, Balamban Mayor Ace Stefan Binghay, Toledo City Mayor John Henry Osmena and Asturias Mayor Allan Adlawan.

Palarong Pambansa gold medalist for volleyball Maxim Czarina Estay will lead the Oath of Amateurism while bronze medalist for sepak takraw also in the Palarong Pambansa, Clint Mar Sinadjan, is the designated torch bearer.

The Cebu City Niños are more than ready to once again dominate the regional meet, according to DepEd Cebu City division sports coordinator Zenaida Gocotano. The Niños will be competing in all sporting events including the demo sports.

This year, the CVIRAA will switch from the point system to the General Olympic Medal System in accordance to the implementation of the Republic Act (RA) 10588 or the Palarong Pambansa Act aimed at institutionalizing the annual competition.

Despite this change and the struggle during last year’s Palarong Pambansa, the Niños are still the team to beat in the CVIRAA 2015.

Cebu City clinched the overall title in 2014 with a total of 891.25 points after lording it over in both the elementary and secondary divisions relegating Cebu Province to far second with only 522.75 points despite losing in the basketball and volleyball events.

The Cebu City Niños lost the secondary basketball title to Mandaue and the elementary title to the Cebu Province, which also grabbed the secondary girls title for the event.
The Cebu Province will also be the team to watch in athletics along with Bohol and Mandaue.

The Mandaue delegation has been improving its performance not only in basketball and athletics but in volleyball as well after beating the Catmon team, who has been lording it over in the sport for a long time, according to DepEd consultant Danilo Villadolid.

Villadolid said he is not sure how Mandaue will fare now that CVIRAA has switched from the point system to the medal system. The consultant also pointed to Talisay City as the team to watch for during the swimming events. Cebu City remains the team to beat in football both in elementary and secondary.

The CVIRAA 2015 will end on March 2, as Central Visayas team is expected to finalize its selection of representatives for the Palarong Pambansa. – Rappler.com