by Perla Lena/PNA
ILOILO CITY — Close to 3,000 athletes from 67 local government units (LGUs) in three regions of the Visayas will compete in 20 sport disciplines of the Batang Pinoy Visayas qualifying leg from February 25 to March 2, hosted by the province and city of Iloilo.
Iloilo City Sports Coordinator, Moises Salomon, said in an interview on Friday that the city government took charge of the athletes’ billeting areas and provided venues for sports that could not be accommodated at the Iloilo Sports Complex.
The city government will provide the athletes transportation from their billeting schools to the sports venue.
The sports coordinator lauded the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) for hosting the event, which he said has already sent several Ilonggos to the national team.
“This is a very good program of the PSC because given the age group of 15 years old and below, that’s the time that children choose whatever sports they want to play. We’re talking about the future of the sports here,” he said.
In a press conference on February 21, PSC Commissioner Arnold G. Agustin said Batang Pinoy is their grassroots development program to discover new talents and young athletes. The winners in the national finals will be trained to become members of the national pool of athletes.
“After the event, we are donating PHP15-million worth of sports equipment to the host city and province for sports development to become a continuous program within the province and city of Iloilo,” he said.
The gold, silver and bronze medalists of the Visayas qualifying leg will play in the national finals sometime in September and October in the venue the PSC would identify.
Iloilo City hosted the national finals of Batang Pinoy in 2012.
A week after the Visayas qualifying leg, the PSC will move to Ilagan, Isabela for the Luzon qualifying leg.
The week-long sports event will kick off with a program at the Iloilo Sports Complex on Sunday while the competition proper will start the next day.
The venues include the La Paz football field for archery, La Paz gym for arnis and La Paz tennis court for lawn tennis; Iloilo Sports Complex for athletics and swimming; Iloilo Sports Complex covered gym for badminton, basketball, chess and table tennis; West Visayas State University field for baseball; Iloilo Grandstand for boxing; Holy Rosary Academy, dance sports; Iloilo Science and Technology, Futsal; SM City north wing lower ground, karatedo; Times Square ICC Gaisano, pencak silat; Central Philippine University gym, sepak takraw, volleyball and softball; Robinsons Pavia, taekwondo; and Joe III garden for beach volleyball.
