11th Milo Little Olympics blasts off today at CCSC

Hundreds of student-athletes from various parts of the Visayas Region will converge this afternoon to witness the unfolding of the 11th edition of the Milo Little Olympics-Visayas at the Cebu City Sports Center.

The opening ceremonies, to be graced by Nestle Philippines, Inc. top executives Michele Calo and Pat Goc-ong, will also see the attendance of DepEd regional director, Dr. Carolino Mordeno, regional PESS chief Dr. Vivian Ginete and Cebu City Schools division superintendent Dr. Leonilo Oliva.

As of yesterday afternoon, the organizing committee already has listed 84 schools in the secondary division and 75 teams in the elementary division.

Schools from Cebu City are crowding the list of entries in both the elementary and secondary divisions.

There are 48 Cebu City schools, which will be joining in the secondary division and the elementary division will have 51.

In the secondary division, Mandaue City follows with 8, Lapu-Lapu City with 5, Talisay City and Toledo City with 3 each, Lilo-an, Dumanjug and Minglanilla with two each and with one each are Medellin, Balamban, Argao, Bogo and San Fernando.

Bohol is represented by Grace Christian School, Southern Leyte with Maasin City National High School and St. Joseph College of Maasin City.

In the elementary division, Mandaue City also has 8 entries, Lapu-Lapu with 4, Consolacion and Carcar with two each and with one teams are Balamban, Medellin and Lilo-an.

Grace Christian School of Bohol, St. Joseph College of Maasin City and Tomas Oppus Pilot School are carrying the cudgels for Southern Leyte.

Meanwhile, Milo Little Olympics Most Outstanding Athletes recipients Elona Dane Siso (table tennis) will light the urn and tennister Sally Mae Siso will lead the oath of sportsmanship.

Highlighting today's opening will be the selection of the Miss Milo Little Olympics 2006 and the cheerdance contest.

A total of 28 candidates vie for the title in the elementary level and 17 in the high school level while the cheerdance will have a total of 16 entries coming from the two divisions.

Action proper starts tomorrow yet except for gymnastics which is scheduled to start next weekend.

A total of 13 sporting events will be featured including athletics, badminton, chess, football, gymnastics, lawn tennis, scrabble, sepak takraw, sipa, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball.