Cebu City Ninos top CVIRAA

BALAMBAN, Cebu – For the 23rd straight year, the Cebu City Ninos finished as the overall champions in the Central Visayas Regional Athletics (CVIRAA) regional meet which ended Monday, March 2 in this southwest town of Cebu, about an hour’s drive from Cebu City.

However, it is Mandaue City that made history by finishing in second place for the first time in this regional meet which will serve as the selection of athletes who will represent the Central Visayas to the Palarong Pambansa happening on May at Tagum City, Davao del Norte.

The Ninos were uncontested as the overall champions raking in a total of 115 gold medals, 93 silver and 63 bronze medals after ruling both the secondary and elementary divisions.

Mandaue, on the other hand, had a medal count of 57-36-39 relegating perennial second placer Cebu Province to third overall after this year’s host of the regional meet only managed a medal haul of 33-44-57.

Adeline Luarez, the sports coordinator of the Mandaue City Schools Division, attributes their team’s steady climb to the top of the rankings in the regional meet to their year-round training and exposures to the Batang Pinoy and the Milo Little Olympics.

Since 2007 when Luarez first took over as sports coordinator, Mandaue had placed fifth in the CVIRAA then climbed to fourth and last year they finished in third place.

Aside from Mandaue, also making a surprise finish in the top 5 is Talisay which had a medal count of 20-14-17 owing to its elementary tankers while once again finishing fifth is Lapu-Lapu City with 18-17-27.

Talisay’s rout at the pool was led by Psalm Deniel Aquino who contributed a total of five individual medals.

The bulk of Cebu City’s medals were handed in by its secondary athletes who accounted for a medal haul of 84-59-34 gold, silver, bronze.

Cebu City and Mandaue had the same number of gold medals from its elementary athletes at 31. However, the Ninos took the first place because it had 34 silver medals and 29 bronze while Mandaue only managed a 7-4 count.

Cebu City dominated athletics with 24 gold medals, gymnastics with 23 gilts, swimming with 25 gold and taekwondo with 15 gold medals.

Notable performances among the Ninos gold medal contributors were tanker Michael Ichiro Kong who swept all of his events including two relays for a total of seven gilts, and gymnasts Daniella Dela Pisa, who also bagged the gold in all her events including the team event for a total of six gilts.

The Ninos also won the secondary boys basketball, elementary boys basketball, elementary football, secondary girls softball, secondary boys volleyball and secondary boys sepak takraw.

The only events that the Ninos missed out on gold medals were in baseball wherein it finished with silver in secondary and elementary baseball, and boxing wherein it only managed a silver and a bronze.

Mandaue, for its part, had most of its gold medals coming from arnis after clinching 20 of the 28 gilts at stake in the event. Its tankers also contributed 10 gold medals while another eight came from its athletes in athletics.

Its athletes in athletics also clinched the first gold medals in this year’s regional meet. Shanelle Demilys Siasoyco of Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) took the first gold medal with her best personal throw of 10.30-meter in the secondary girls’ shotput event. Shen Camay of the Mandaue City Central Elementary School followed suit in the elementary girls division of the same event with her best throw of 8.17-m.

Mandaue also notched the elementary girls volleyball title and the secondary football title, perhaps one of its notable win in the week-long meet because before it clinched the title against Dumaguete, 2-0, it prevented the defending champions Cebu City Ninos from advancing to the finals with a 3-1 win in their semifinals match.

The Mandaue secondary football team was comprised of booters s coming from SHS-AdC and reinforcements from Canduman National High School while the Cebu City Ninos was manned by booters from the Don Bosco Technology Center (DBTC) and beefed up by players from the University of Southern Philippines and Paref Springdale.

The last time that Mandaue had held the title was in 2012. During their semifinals match, Mandaue’s consistent goalscorers—Kintaro Miyagi of SHS-AdC and Joseph Caderao of Canduman did not disappoint.

Miyagi, a former Little Azkals, scored the first goal when his shot to the top corner of the goal surprised Cebu City’s goalkeeper Kenry Balobo with just 11 minutes into the match.

Miyagi struck again in the 32nd minute and had his hip hit by Balobo’s boot as the goalkeeper tried to stop him from scoring his second goal. Miyagi dropped to the ground but made the effort to stand up to make sure the goal had gone in before crumpling again on the ground and had to be stretchered off the pitch.

He, however, went back to play in the second half wherein Caderao had taken over the scoring cudgels with a goal in the 54th minute.

Moiselle Angelo Alforque of DBTC and the Ninos’ team captain prevented his team from getting shutout by converting a penalty in the 65th minute. Alforque and Miyagi used to be teammates during their Little Azkals days.

Last Day

Highlighting the last day of competition last Monday was the secondary basketball finals between the defending champions Mandaue and the Cebu City Ninos which packed the Mayor E.S. Binghay Memorial Cultural Center to the rafters.

Mandaue was manned by hoopsters also from SHS-AdC while Cebu City Ninos had its team made up of players from the University of the Visayas, University of San Carlos and Cebu Intitute of Technology University.

Mandaue’s lineup included Palarong Pambansa 2013 Most Valuable Player Janjan Jaboneta and Zachary Lance Eden Huang, who will soon be joinning the University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers.

Mandaue had waxed hot at the start anchored on the baskets of Jaboneta and posted an eight-point lead in the first quarter.

However, Ninos’ Raul Cabahug and Orlan Wamar combined to wrestle the lead from Mandaue at 23-22 in the second quarter.

A trey from Steven Co allowed Mandaue to take back the lead at 30-29 with just seconds left in the second quarter. However, a counted foul on Wamar, who also sank both his free throws thereafter, allowed the Ninos to end the second quarter on top with 34-30.

The Ninos never relinquished the lead from the time it took it at the end of the second quarter until the end of the game erecting it’s highest lead at 17 points with three minutes left in the fourth quarter on Wamar’s trey.

The Mandaue cagers couldn’t just sink in their shots but managed to come close on Pio Longga’s baskets.

The Cebu City Ninos eventually took the title on a 68-58 win and not only ended Mandaue’s three-year reign but also evened its head-to-head against Mandaue at 4-all.

All those who won gold medals in the individual events will automatically get to represent Central Visayas in the Palarong Pambansa while selection for the team events was still being deliberated. – Rappler.com