Cebu to host Milo Marathon national finals for first time

CEBU, Philippines - For the first time, the Queen City of the South will be hosting the national finals of the prestigious Milo Marathon on December 3.

Local organizer Ricky Ballesteros made the confirmation after getting clearance from the City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM) chief Rafael Yap.

Initially, Ballesteros had some reservations because of the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project here, but since it's still not going to start soon, he decided to accept the challenge of hosting the country’s biggest marathon event.

“I was waiting for a written letter from Rafael Yap at first. Kanang black and white gyud ba. But when we talked, he said 'sige it's a go na'. He assured me that the BRT project will not affect the staging of the Milo Marathon so I accepted the hosting,” said Ballesteros.

Ballesteros and the Cebu group as a whole have just been awarded as the best organizer for both the Milo Marathon and the Milo Little Olympics, making their breakthrough hosting of the national finals more challenging.

“Everyone’s excited when it was announced that we will finally be hosting the national finals of the Milo Marathon. This has been offered to us two years ago, but I declined. We will do our best to live up to their expectations,” added Ballesteros.

Cebu City is only third venue outside of Metro Manila to host the national finals after Angeles City and Iloilo.

In a related development, Ballesteros said Milo Little Olympics-Visayas will stay in Cebu this year.

“They wanted to hold it still in Cebu because everything is in place already here," he said.  (FREEMAN)