Sara Duterte to grace opening of Davao Batang Pinoy

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will grace the opening ceremony of the 2019 Philippine National Youth Games-Batang Pinoy Mindanao leg unfolding tomorrow in Tagum, Davao del Norte.

Phl Sports commissioner Charles Maxey yesterday said Duterte-Carpio is the keynote speaker in the inaugurals of the week-long multi-sports meet for in and out-of-school athletes 15 years old and below.

The opening ceremony, which  starts at 3 p.m., features the parade of colors of participating regions at the Davao del Norte Tourism Complex, which hosted the Palarong Pambansa three years ago and National Batang Pinoy the year after.

Action unfolds in archery, arnis, basketball, badminton, boxing, chess, dancesports, pencak silat, sepak takraw, softball, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis and indoor and beach volleyball on Monday.

Karatedo kicks off Tuesday while medal-rich swimming is set to open Wednesday. The centerpiece athletics, which usually delivers the first gold medals in past editions, will be the last to open as it was scheduled Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The Tagum leg is the first of three qualifiers the PSC is holding as part of its grassroots development program.

After Tagum, the Batang Pinoy  resumes with the Visayas leg slated Feb. 23-March 2 in Iloilo and will proceed up North with the Luzon edition set March 16-23 in Ilagan, Isabela.

The National Finals is tentatively set in October in either Tagbilaran, Bohol or Ormoc City, Leyte.