Youth games to fete Manila’s sports greats

Songs, music, dances and festivity coupled with the solemnity of the spirit of athletic competition will fill the historic Rizal Memorial Sports Complex during the opening ceremony of the second Manila Youth Games (MYG) on April 6.

A three-hour long ceremony, highlighted by the awarding of plaques of appreciation and recognition to true-blue Manileño sports greats, has been prepared to usher in the week-long games that is a pet program of Manila City Hall’s sports arm, the Manila Sports Council (MASCO).

Song and dance numbers from up and coming bands and singing groups in the big city will provide entertainment during the rites, which will be participated in by at least 8,000 children athletes aged 15 years and under who are competing in 14 sports calendared by the MYG.

"We expect to open the second MYG with a bang with this festive opening ceremony and with the intention that all weeklong, competitions will be as exciting and heated among the kids,"said Arnold "Ali" Atienza, MASCO chairman.

But Manila’s sports greats of yesteryears, led by the late Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson, considered by many as one of the best center halfbacks in football in the 1930s, are expected to grab most of the limelight. Lacson was member of the 1934 Far Eastern Olympic Games Philippine football team — one of the best ever assembled.

These sports greats are to receive recognition for their efforts from the very city they grew up and grew old in from no less than Manila Mayor Lito Atienza.