Milo to launch sports events Thursday

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu leg of the 33rd National Milo Marathon, the 14th Milo Little Olympics, and the National Milo Little Olympics will be jointly launched on Thursday at the Cebu City Sports Center conference room.

Expected to grace the affair are Milo Sports executive director Pat Goc-ong, Cebu City consultant on education Joy Augustus Young, DepEd-7 sports coordinator Dr. Danilo Villadolid, and Ballesteros.

Meanwhile, the organizers of the 33rd National Milo Marathon set on July 5 will limit the number of entries for its Cebu leg to 20,000 or less than 5,000 runners from the 2008 edition of the country’s biggest and longest-run footrace.

“The national organizers told me to limit the number of participants this year because the assembly area is so small to accommodate all the participants,” said Ricky Ballesteros, the event’s local coordinator.

“We need wider and bigger space. Kung mo-exceed pa that number, mo-extend sad ang atong assembly area. So we agreed to what the organizers said,” he added.

For the past five years, Cebu has been consistently breaking records for the largest number of participants in Milo Marathon. It started in 2004 when 17,000 fitness buffs joined the race until it ballooned to a quarter of a hundred thousand last year.

Despite the recent move by the race organizers, Ballesteros is confident that the Queen City of the South would still be able to uphold its record mark.

“Even if they limit the number of participants, we remain to be the record-holder for the largest number of entries because no other region could surpass the dedication and passion of the Cebuanos to running, which could clearly be seen in this annual National Milo Marathon,” said Ballesteros.

Although billed as marathon, the race only features the 21-kilometer, 10K, 5K and 3K categories.

The top three finishers in the men’s and women’s classes will enjoy an all-expense paid trip for the National Finals set on October 4 in Manila.

As of this writing, more than 19,000 running enthusiasts have already confirmed their entry. The registration will end today with limited slots left for 5K category only.

“As much as we would like to accommodate all interested parties, we could not negate what the national organizers ordered to us,” Ballesteros said. – THE FREEMAN