With all regional competition completed in the past few months, the best of the best gathered on Oct. 23-25 in Sta. Cruz, Laguna.
Seven athletes from Negros Oriental qualified for this prestigious national competition: four from Foundation University, one from Negros Oriental High School, one from Silliman University High School, and one from Bayawan City.
Unofficial results show that from the Negros Oriental qualifiers, only two out of the seven athletes brought home medals, and they’re from Foundation University High School.
Over 300 athletes from all over the Visayas were there to compete against Mindanao, and the two regions of Luzon.
In athletics, eighth grader Ann Katherine Quitoy took a silver medal from among seven other contenders.
Ann Katherine threw the javelin over 32 meters in tough, windy conditions.
She is now focusing on returning to the Palarong Pambansa where she placed 8th in last year’s event as a seventh grader, which was held in Tagum City in Davao del Norte.
Ann’s teammate Marjorie Uy, a 10th grader, captured a bronze medal in the long jump. She also took 4th place in the triple jump, as she jumped a personal best of 10.30 meters.
Ann will be working on various drills in the coming months, in hopes of returning to the Palaro where she competed a few years ago.
So once again, this Milo competition showed the weakness of competitive sports here in the Province, which is: many activities but little to show, and the results are not so impressive.
On a regional level, the cities and the Province of Negros Oriental are at or near the bottom of the pile as compared to Cebu and Bohol.
It gets worse on the national level as in last year’s showing at the Palaro, where only five athletes from Dumaguete competed.
One solution to the problem could be Barangay Street Athletics.
As Presidential candidate Grace Poe stated last week, we need to promote sports at the local government level.
So far, only one athlete has qualified for next year’s Olympics. He is a Fil-Am and in the sport of athletics.
Well, leaders and those in authority, what will it be? More talk and less action? Or less talk and more action?
Only time will tell.
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