Milo Marathon Cebu leg this a.m.

A record field of 24,270 runners will be out in the streets early today to take part in the Cebu leg of the 32nd National Milo Marathon starting at the Cebu Normal University grounds and ending at the Cebu City Sports Center.

Rogelio Reli, the former road running king of Cebu, will try to qualify for the national finals here instead of dealing a full marathon in Manila.

With Reli around, some seasoned footracers here felt the slot to the national finals will be limited to only two.But for the daring entries, everything remains to be seen.

Defending Cebu leg champion Mendel Lopez will miss the action as he is going to take the board exams for geodetic engineers.

Like Lopez, women’s title-holder Leizl Lumindas-Getaruelas will not also be around to defend her crown as she already left for Sabah, Malaysia for the Kota Kinabalu International Climbathon.

With that, everybody is anticipating of an intense showdown between Madelyn Carter and Sharon Vega for supremacy in the distaff side.

Aside from the 21-kilometer action, the other categories featured are the 5K and 3K Fun Run.

A cheer dance contest will also usher in the event.A total of four squads will be competing under the elementary and collegiate levels and five in the high school department.

In the tertiary level, the competing squads are the University of San Carlos, University of Cebu, Southwestern University and Asian College of Technology, while the secondary category has SWU South and Main Campus, Inayawan Night High School, Barrio Luz Night High and Don Carlos Gothong Memorial National Memorial School. Vying for top honors in the elementary contest are SWU, Tejero, Inayawan, and Bo.Luz.

A total of 15 schools, on the other hand, are seeking for the best team/school and the biggest delegation awards including UC-Main, METC and Lapu-Lapu/Mandaue, SWU, CNU, University of Southern Philippines Foundation, Cebu State College of Science and Technology, University of San Jose-Recoletos, University of the Philippines Visayas-Cebu College, Abellana National School, Camp Lapu-Lapu National High School, Bo.Luz, Pardo and USC.