CEBU CITY. – Like thoroughbreds waiting to be unleashed, the country’s top high school and elementary athletes nationwide and overseas finally get to strut their wares and skills as the 64th Palarong Pambansa unfolds at the Cebu City Sports Center and nearby venues Thursday.
The centerpiece events of track and field and swimming will be staged at the newly-refurbished sports complex, with 15 gold medals at stake in athletics at the oval that organizers were still trying to fix on the eve of competition.
Tournament director Jeannette Obiena said she was assured by the hosts that the track would be ready on time for the first event, the high school girls 3,000-meter run, starting at 6 a.m.
Also scheduled in the morning are the finals in the boys’ elementary long jump and the girls’ elementary discus throw of the sportsfest supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and Sen. Bong Go, chairman of the Senate Sports Committee.
The morning events will be held only until 10 a.m. as the organizing Department of Education imposed a curfew for the health and well-being of the athletes, with the afternoon events resuming at 3:30 in the afternoon.
Swimming will start at 1 a.m. at the adjacent CCSC pool with several finals scheduled in the afternoon while dancesport, a popular discipline among Cebuanos, makes its debut in the meet at the Gaisano Mall Cebu activity center.
The dynamic and attractive sport of artistic gymnastics that made Carlos Edriel Yulo, a former Palaro high school and elementary standout, world famous will also get going at the Cebu Institute of Technology gymnasium.
Scheduled is the girls contest in rhythmic gymnastics with six gold medals — individual and team all-around, freehand, rope and hoop events — at stake.
Among the gymnasts competing in the women’s artistic events on Friday is Elaiza Yulo, the sibling of the two-time world champion, who swept all her six events in the National Capital Region meet last May.
Sepak takraw, baseball, chess and the popular sport of volleyball are also set to start in various venues in the Queen City of the South that last hosted the meet in 1994.
The Big City bets, perennial overall champions in both elementary and secondary divisions, are expected to meet stiff opposition from Region 4-A composed of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon, as well as Central and Western Visayas.
The meet will also show if campaigners from the National Academy of Sports and from the Philippine Schools Overseas, the sons and daughters of Filipino contract workers abroad, are as good as they are touted to be.