Mandaue pug wins gold for Tagbilaran City

A Mandaue native, who never had a legitimate exposure in boxing competitions, surprised the field when he won for Tagbilaran City a gold medal in the National Youth and Women's Amateur Boxing Olympic Festival at the Mindanao Civic Center in Tubod, Lanao del Norte.

This as Team Cebu City-Athletics wound up in the top 10 in the overall team standings in both the juniors and seniors divisions of the National Open Track and Field Championships at the Nueva Ecija Sports Complex in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija.

Both the amateur boxing and the track and the track and field championships are part of the Philippine Olympic Festival, which the Philippine Olympic Committee organized to celebrate the founding of the International Olympic Committee.

The staging of the Philippine Olympic Festival, with over 8,000 athletes and officials participating, got a big boost when LGUs and the PSC agreed to host the venues of the different sports events and private firms supporting the festival from June 18-25.

The Cebuano athletes already won a total of 11 gold medals in the Philippine Olympics Festival with the differently-abled swimmer raking away nine gold medals in swimming event at the Trace Aquatic Center in Los Baños, Laguna and two in track and field in Nueva Ecija.

The gymnastics team, on the other hand, salvaged a bronze medal at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.

Cebu Boxer Wins Gold For Tagbilaran City

Trained at the famed ALA Boxing Gym of sportsman Antonio L. Aldeguer, Alde Desosa, a resident of Labogon, Mandaue City, saved Tagbilaran City from an embarrassing gold medal blackout.

The 17-year-old Desosa won the junior level's light welterweight category over Olongapo's Arvin Ferrera.

Desosa, who Team Cebu City coach Peter Cuizon said, never fought in local competitions, dispatched Ferrera in just 35 seconds in the first round due to a Referee-Stop-Contest (RSC) decision.

The feat was enough for Desosa to catch the eye of the coaching staff of the national team.

On the other hand, Wilson Haya of Bukidnon but is also trained at the ALA Gym, settled for a silver in the 57kgs.

This time, it was Haya who was slapped with an RSC-CCL against RP Developmental pool member Richard Suarez.

Another Cebuano, Marjo Borres ended his quest with a bronze medal.

Marjun Yap of Bukidnon also ended with a bronze that saw Tagbilaran having a total of one gold, one silver and bronze, enough for them to bag the second overall position.

TCC-Athletics Enters Top 10 In Overall Standing

The boy's squad of Team Cebu City-Athletics was the top achiever for the Niños as they grabbed fifth place overall with 31 points even as Far Eastern University (FEU) occupied the top spot with 67 points.

UP-Marist was second with 36 points, Lyceum of Aparri was third with 33 and Laguna-Team A was fourth with 32 points.

The TCC girls team, for its part, settled for sixth place overall with 28 points.

The top five teams include FEU with 98 points, Laguna-A wit 86 points, Puerto Princesa with 40, Adamson University with 36 and Capiz with 29 points.

The women's team also landed sixth place with 14 points behind FEU (145 points), TMS Ship Agencies-La Salle (135), Philippine Army (48), BSU-A (24), and University of Baguio (17).

The men's team was seventh with eight points with TMS Ship Agencies-La Salle taking the top spot. It shared the spot with University of the Cordilleras and Philippine Air Force-B.

Philippine Army (95 points) was second, Philippine Air Force-A (83) was third, FEU (47) was fourth, Adamson (15) was fifth and University of Baguio (13) was sixth.

Yesterday, members of Team Cebu City paid courtesy call to UC president Atty. Augusto Go. The athletes thanked Atty. Go for the financial support, which the school extended to them

Today, they will visit the office of Cebu City Councilor Sylvan "Jack" Jakosalem for another courtesy call.