Let the games begin

CEBU, Philippines - Action in the 18th Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals goes full blast today in different venues mainly at the Cebu City Sports Center where the medal-rich athletics and swimming as well as secondary football, gymnastics, scrabble and taekwondo will be staged.

Basketball, which will be featured for the first time in the annual sports conclave bankrolled by Nestle Philippines, will be played in five venues due to its huge turnout of entries. Hardcourt action will be at the Capitol Parish gym, Sacred Heart School, Cebu Eastern College, University of the Visayas, and Cebu Coliseum.

Badminton will be held at the Metro Sports, chess at the USC-South Campus, elementary football at the Aboitiz Sports Field, lawn tennis at the Baseline Recreation Center (elementary) and at the Alta Vista Golf and Country Club (secondary), sipa and sepak takraw at Labangon Elementary School, table tennis at the University of Cebu (UC), and volleyball at Sacred Heart School, Southwestern University, Cebu Technological University, and Zapatera ES.

A record field of close to 6,000 athletes from 280 schools in the region will see action in the two-weekend competition that is considered as the country's biggest and best-run multi-sport conclave of school-based athletes that is funded by a private entity.

Perennial champion UC Webmasters are again the heavy favorites in the secondary division but they could not take their foes lightly more so that they defended their overall crown last year by a very close margin over the USC-Basic Education Department. UC tallied 176.25 points, while USC-BED got 161.5 points.

The other schools to watch out for are gymnastics power University of the Visayas-Main Campus, Abellana National School, SWU, USPF, Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu, and Cabancalan National School.

The Cebuano athletes should also brace for a tough challenge from the out-of-towners, especially Iloilo National High School and Silliman University from Dumaguete City, which made it to the top 10 at fifth and 10th, respectively.

In the elementary level, USC-BED and UV are again the top teams to beat, but they must be wary of emerging athletic power SHS-Ateneo de Cebu, which rose from nowhere to third place in the overall rankings in the 2012 edition.

The other strong contenders include Catmon ES, Cebu Institute of Technology-University, University of San Jose-Recoletos, Don Bosco Technology Center, Talamban ES, Banilad ES-Mandaue, Labangon ES and the University of Bohol.

In the next two weekend, the competing athletes will slug it out for precious slots to the National Finals that will be hosted once again by Cebu this October. (FREEMAN)