Hawaii invites Cebuanos for Goodwill Games

Another international game awaits junior Cebuano athletes as the organizing committee of the Hawaii International Youth Goodwill Games (HIYGG) mulls on inviting Cebu City and Mandaue City to the inaugural staging of the multi-event meet set July 24-29 next year.

The invitation was sent to sportsman Antonio L. Aldeguer by former World Boxing champion Rolando Bohol, a Cebuano who is the chairman of all sports of the HIYGG.

"As we want to continually showcase Hawaii as a youth and family orientated sports destination, we are anticipating hosting the event approximately the same time frame every two years," Bohol said. "We are looking about 25 athletes and five coaches from the Philippines."

Bohol said formal invitation letters will be sent to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano by the organizing committee.

There are 18 sports included in the Goodwill Games intended for athletes 14-18 years old with different age categories for each sport to be established.

The 18 events are baseball, basketball, boxing, canoe racing, cheerleading, cross-country, golf, online hockey, judo, kayaking, rugby, softball, soccer, surfing, tennis, track and field, volleyball and wrestling.

Hawaii is a string of 137 islands encompassing a land area of 6,423.4 square miles in the north central Pacific Ocean about 2,400 miles from the west coast of the continental United States.

Stretching from northwest to southeast, the major islands are Niihau, Kauai, O'ahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Maui, and Hawai'i. The total population of all the islands is 1,193,001.

The Games will be held on the main island of O'ahu at various schools and parks.