16th Milo Little Olympics opens

CEBU, Philippines - The 16th Milo Little Olympics (MLO)-Visayas Regional Finals fires off today.

This as a bigger challenge awaits Team Visayas as it aims to secure the first perpetual trophy this year through against the now solidified National Capital Region (NCR) in the MLO National Finals on November in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

Milo Sports Executive Pat Goc-ong said that Visayas region’s quest for the perpetual trophy will face rough sailing as Philippine team members and Palarong Pambansa medalists confirmed their participation in NCR’s regional qualifying.

To recall, Visayas won back-to-back national titles last year in Cagayan de Oro City with just a 16.5-point difference over NCR.

“It will be a tough competition for these two areas since NCR is inviting the best teams in Manila,” said Goc-ong, during the Visayas Regional Finals press conference yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) Conference Hall.

MLO-Visayas’ tournament organizer Ricky Ballesteros, on the other hand, said that NCR could really get the best athletes since they have all the big universities and the training pool there but he believed that Visayas’ edge will be the team sporting events.

“If we review the results in the previous stagings, even if we don’t get the first places in the individual events, we have the edge in the team competition. That’s why we will try to strengthen our team and individual events this year,” said Ballesteros.

Interestingly, the number of participants for this prestigious multi-sporting event is getting bigger every year. From 4,900 participants last year the participation rose to 7,953 this year in the Visayas leg.

“We’re impressed by this outcome. I believe that this is an effect when we started to launch the Milo Little Olympics National Finals two years ago. With this development, we’re on track of encouraging the athletes in the country to be involved in sports and make this as their stepping stone in fulfilling their dreams and aspirations,” Goc-ong said.

MLO Opening Salvo

The oath of sportsmanship and the lighting of the urn of peace and unity will be spearheaded by well-decorated athletes, Wella Mae Ortega and Rhey Jey Ortouste, respectively.

Ortega is the team captain of Catmon volleyball squad, a four-time Palarong Pambansa champion and back-to-back champions of the Milo Little Olympics national finals.

Ortouste, on the other hand, is a sepak takraw standout of Abellana National School. From being an ANS standout and most outstanding athlete in MLO for a couple of years, he is now the youngest member of the national team.

Ortouste will form part of the Philippine team for the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in Indonesia in November. He along with the rest of ANS sepak takraw squad are expected to dominate the regional finals but he may not be able to join the nationals since it falls on the same week of the SEAG.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young and Department of Education (DepEd) VII Regional Director Recaredo Borgonia will grace this afternoon’s opening ceremonies.

The participating athletes come from 242 schools from Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete City, Bohol, Negros Oriental, Maasin City and Negros Occidental. - THE FREEMAN