QC launches ambitious sports program

The Quezon City government launched yesterday an ambitious sports program for the city’s youth aimed at developing athletes for the national pool.

Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said City Hall is spending some P3 million this year for the first ever city-wide two-week sports Olympics, which will run from April 21 to May 5.

"For a long time, sports has been neglected by the city although it has produced a number of high-caliber athletes without the city taking an active part in sports development," the mayor told a news conference. "Now we’re changing all that."

Belmonte said he has delegated the task of developing the first "Batang QC Olympics" to the office of Vice Mayor Mayor Herbert Bautista. "That this is a first means there will be other Olympics to follow," he said.

Bautista said the city-wide sports program has received help from the Philippine Sports Commission, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Philippine Olympic Committee, the National Sports Associations and barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan officials from the city’s 142 barangays.

Fourth District Councilor Ariel Inton, a member of the city’s sports development council, said City Hall hopes to train young athletes for national and international competitions in the near future.

Bautista said winners in the city Olympics, which will have as participants youths in the nine to 21 age brackets, will be awarded academic scholarships. Already, hundreds of youths have registered for the Olympics, which features events in athletics, basketball, cycling, swimming, table tennis, karate-do, taekwondo and volleyball at the city-owned Amoranto Sports Stadium.

The mayor said he envisions the program to grow into a significant source of talents for the national pool. "Right now we don’t yet have gymnastics as a serious field for youth athletes. Our country’s lone gymnastics center is at the University of the Philippines and it is in a sad state of disrepair. We want to help develop an aggressive program in gymnastics in the near future," he said.

The mayor noted that Quezon City has now grown into an urban center of some 3.3 million people. "There is a lot of potential for the city to develop as a home of quality-caliber sports," he said.