Cebu is Off and Running!

The year has just started and if the forecast for the local Cebu sports scene for 2012 is to be gauged on how we’re kicking off the year, it sure looks like we’re going to have a knock-out of a year! Cebu is up, off and running with the staging of the Cebu City Marathon (CCM) today. But why the big fuss? The CCM, as a year-starter, is the perfect case study of what we would like to see in Cebu Sports in the long term. There is no doubt that we Cebuanos can put up the biggest festival in the country with our Sinulog this week. We’re also capable of putting up the best international shows in town.

But one position that’s just sitting there as a gold mine waiting to be unearthed is Cebu as the prime sports destination of the country. We’ve had the Davis Cup in tennis, dancesport competitions, practical shooting, triathlons, and of course, boxing and basketball. We’ve already hosted so many international sports events but somehow, Cebu isn’t still identified this way. We just lack that one entity that can bind and put all these together as a single moving force for Cebu.

The CCM is now turning out to be the model of a sports event that puts together a perfect mix of the private sector, the government and the participation of the local sports community. For starters, the event is initiated and organized by Cebu sportsmen who literally run and love the sport for the right reasons. This is the only marathon that we can truly call our own and proudly say, “Ato ni bai!” When an event is hosted by organizers from Manila, it doesn’t have that x-factor, that local Cebu “tatak” that makes it click. This is where the Cebu Executive Runners Club (CERC) stands out above the rest. Of all the running events organized by Cebuanos, the CCM is it.

CERC’s tying up with the local government has also produced an ideal working relationship that is sure to make any event click. When the SRP is closed and half the roads of the race routes are devoted to the CCM, then you have a perfect running lane for the runners. Along with this will be the presence of traffic enforcers and police personnel who’ll be working with the traffic concerns as well as clear the way for the runners. Speaking of local support, marshals, parking lot aides, and trash personnel will be aplenty. There’ll also be different Sinulog dancers at designated water stations to help ease off the tired legs and stress of the runners. And did we forget to mention how many are running? The CCM has drawn over 7,000 runners, including 1,568 running the center piece 42K. There are 1,340 in the 21K and 4,114 in the 5K as of Friday. Registration for the 5K is still open and is expected to bring the numbers up even higher. This alone makes the CCM the biggest in terms of participation for any sports event solely run by a local Cebu sports group without strings being controlled by Manila. Some 19 countries will be represented on Cebu’s streets today: USA, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand, UK, Norway, Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sweden and the Philippines. At the end of the day, the CCM won’t be just a race; it becomes a celebration of what Cebu is capable of doing in hosting an international sports event of this magnitude. As a most welcome bonus, the local Cebu economy gets a boost with hotels, restaurants, stores, retailers, and public transportation services getting a surge in sales. Over-all, it’s the Sinulog of sports.

But can you just imagine if Cebu can get its act united and move to push our hometown to host more events like this? We already have an international boxing event scheduled later this month, with more sure to be held later in the year. The X-Terra Triathlon is coming back to Liloan and the Ironman is going to Lapu-Lapu. There are talks about making Cebu the volleyball capital of the country. We obviously have the tools, ingredients and most importantly the competence to host international events, don’t we? Can we now level up and make it a standard? A norm? Can we now get everyone to work together to push this as one?

Benchmark? Model? Brazil just hosted the latest Ms. Universe competition. They’ll then host the World Cup in 2014 and later the Olympics in 2016. Talk about a monopoly of the biggest events to host. (What they lack now in their portfolio as hosts are the NBA Finals, the World Series and the Super Bowl!) J I can assure you that these didn’t happen by accident. This was planned, programmed and part of a vision to make Brazil a host “for all seasons.” The impact of the two major events has made Brazil abuzz with activities this early, already boosting their local economy and infrastructure.

We can get things going in Cebu for this. We had (or still have?) the Cebu Visitors and Convention Bureau (CVCB) but I’m not quite sure how this turned out and if this was just for the tourism/hospitality industry. Cebu needs a similar direction for sports. We can pool all the brilliant minds of the sports world and get them together to push Cebu to become the sports capital of the country. They’ll identify our goals and earmark specific activities needed to get there: infrastructure, training, sourcing of resources and more. It will be hard, but it can be done. If we can host the biggest fiesta and sports events in the country even while blindfolded, then it’s time to level up.

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Time-out: Happy birthday to our favorite dentist, Dra. Pinky Chupungco-Navarro! >>> You can reach me at [email protected].