WITH a plethora of innovations plus other creative and participant-friendly plans on tap, the Philippine Sports Commission will stage this year’s Batang Pinoy National Championships from Oct. 25 to 30 in the picturesque seaport city of General Santos City, Sarangani.
“We want the Batang Pinoy to become an audition of promising young athletes so they can one day represent our country in international play,” said PSC Communications Office head and project director Dindin Urquiaga yesterday during the Philippine Sportswriters Association forum at the PSC conference room in Manila.
“Our main objective for this year’s Batang Pinoy is to provide the delegates an excellent experience as if they were already competing in a global-level competition,” PSC chairman Richard Bachmann said during the session of the PSC’s flagship grassroots project to be held in the “Tuna Capital of the Philippines.”
Bachmann and Urquiaga said they intend to set the organizational bar high for the age-group sportsfest during the program supported by the PSC, Philippine Olympic Committee, San Miguel Corp., Smart/PLDT, Milo and leading gaming platform ArenaPlus.
There will be a total of 27 disciplines to be held in the meet, namely, aquatic-swimming, archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, basketball (3×3), boxing, chess, cycling, dancesport, futsal, gymnastics, jiu-jitsu, judo, kickboxing, karate, muay thai, pencak silat, sepak takraw, soft tennis, tennis, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
With the meet to be held for the first time in the hometown of boxing ring icon Manny Pacquiao, Urquiaga said they expect the participation to balloon to 20,000 athletes or more than the close to 15,000 participants in the 2024 edition in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.
“There were some budget problems for some of the Mindanao delegations in going to Puerto Princesa, but now we expect the entries to reach 20,000, especially from the contingents in the south and Mindanao,” said Urquiaga said of the sports showcase whose hub will be the Antonio A. Acharon Sports Complex.
“We have made some changes in some of the sports, particularly the age group categories, to avoid the lack of participation in some of them. For example, there will only be one age group class in futsal (indoor football),” he said.
To enable the different contingents to move around the competition venues and with the cooperation of General Santos City Mayor Lorelie Pacquiao, transport will be by electric buses in keeping with the PSC’s commitment to “green sports,” according to Urquiaga.
On the registration side, he said the PSC has come up with a digital technical manual for all of the participating contingents “so that 80 percent of what the delegates need will be answered to avoid any further confusion” while hinting of other changes in making the meet a more memorable one for all of the participants.
