CEBU, Philippines – Although losing their secondary division crown, University of San Carlos still danced under the bright shade of success after they retained the overall championship in the 24th Cebu City Olympics yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center.
USC secondary squad was dethroned by their arch-rival University of Cebu but this doesn’t stop the Carolinians in winning the overall title. USC athletes wield their athletic prowess to collect 81 golds, 69 silvers and 61 bronzes in the secondary and elementary class to reign supreme.
UC placed second overall to USC with 59 golds, 39 silvers and 46 bronze medals, while the University of the Visayas which relied mostly with its gymnasts came out third with 27-11-16 gold-silver-bronze.
Included in the top 10 list were Unit 4 (16-21-28), Cebu Institute of Technology-University (15-12-18), Unit 5(13-15-23), Unit 1(12-13-34) and Unit 7 with 10-10-8 gold-silver-bronze.
USC’s badminton players contributed two golds, a silver and a bronze, two silvers in taekwondo, six silvers and five bronzes in gymnastics, a silver in football, a silver and a bronze in tennis, a gold in table tennis and the rest of its medal haul in chess.
USC sealed its campaign with gold in basketball over Don Bosco Technology Center.
In the secondary division, USC also got majority of its gold medals in athletics with 13 and another nine from swimming.
The other golds that USC got were from gymnastics with 3-2-8, taekwondo with 4-2-2, three golds and a silver in badminton, three golds and three bronzes in tennis, 1-2-1 gilts in table tennis, 1-2-5 gilts in arnis and the rest from chess and dancesport.
USC missed one more gold medal when they lost to the University of the Visayas in the secondary basketball finals.
UC won the secondary division crown over USC after dominating athletics with 14-14-9, swimming with 14-8-9 gilts and arnis with nine golds and three silvers. They also got nine golds and two bronzes in taekwondo, 2-2-5 gilts in karatedo, 3-1-1 gilts in table tennis and two silvers from scrabble.
The top performers in the two-weekend multi-sporting event will be representing the Queen City of the South in the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) Regional Meet next year. (FREEMAN)