The inaugural Negros Island Regional Athletic Association Meet is scheduled in the first week of February, and will be hosted by Bacolod City.
The traditional opening parade will most likely be held on Sunday, Feb. 7 and competitions would begin the following day.
The winning athletes and teams will represent NIRAA in the Palarong Pambansa 2016, to be hosted by the Province of Albay, and Legaspi City as the games venue. This annual school games will be held on April 16-22.
The province of Negros Oriental will field seven teams in the NIRAA, representing the province and the cities of Dumaguete, Bais, Bayawan, Canlaon, Guihulngan and Tanjay.
On the other hand, the Negros Occidental athletic contingent will only consist of one composite delegation composed of the best athletes of the entire Province, making it a formidable opponent of those teams of Negros Oriental.
“It’s going to be a massacre,” rued a DepEd official of the Provincial Division.
Whatever the results of the NIRAA, it will perhaps finally make our local Deped officials, the Governor, the Mayors, and the heads of academe realize that as the UN Task Force on Sport for MDG puts it, physical education and sports are “potent tools and engines of development… for health, education, social transformation, partnership and linkages, environmental protection, and peace-building activities.”
Dr. Aparicio Mequi
[email protected]
