PRISAA national collegiate games kick off

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Swimming and athletics take the spotlight as competition in the 2012 Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) National Collegiate Games goes into high gear on Monday at the Cebu City Sports Center here and nearby venues.

A total of eight final events in track and field and 16 in swimming kick off the country’s longest-running sports showcase for outstanding collegiate athletes marking its 20th edition since the PRISAA Games was revived in 1991.

Up for grabs at the newly renovated track oval by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama are the golds in the  men’s and women’s 1,500-meter races, men’s 110-meter hurdles, women’s 100-meter hurdles, men’s and women’s shot put and men’s and women’s long jump.

At the adjacent Olympic-size swimming pool within the complex is a loaded  program consisting of the finals of men’s and women’s 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 100 backstroke, 400 individual medley, 50 freestyle, 4x50 medley relay and 4x100 freestyle relay.

While De la Salle-Dasmarinas swimmer Jaevico Dalay, who was last year’s most bemedalled male athlete, won’t be around to make waves, back in action is University of San Carlos mermaid Lorendale Echaves, who will aim to surpass her glittering haul of seven golds and one silver medal in last year’s meet held in Zamboanga.

Also kicking off today are men’s baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s beach volleyball, men’s football,  men’s sepak takraw, women’s softball, men’s and women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s badminton, men’s boxing, men’s and women’s chess, men’s and women’s lawn tennis, men’s and women’s table tennis and men’s and women’s taekwondo.

“Cebu is 99.99 percent ready to host the PRISAA National Collegiate Games,” said PRISAA president and former PSC commissioner Fr. Vic Uy, the vice president for finance of the Holy Name University in Bohol, who thanked Cebu City Mayor Rama and Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia for their all-out support of the event.