Lingayen, Pangasinan— For consecutive years, Region 7 has been a consistent fourth-place finisher in the Palarong Pambansa.
The Region 7 athletes wouldn’t mind finishing fourth again but going lower than that wouldn’t be acceptable.
“We are targeting number one so that when we fail, we’ll drop to number two. And when we’ll fail getting the number two, we’ll drop to third. It’s ok if we land at number four again but no way should we go down to number five,” said Dr. Carmelita Dulangon, the newly installed regional director of the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7).
Some games of the annual multi-sporting competition, which gathers the country’s top elementary and secondary athletes, started yesterday but the actual opening ceremony will be held today at the Narciso Ramos Sports Complex. President Noynoy Aquino is expected to grace the opening.
Trackster Aldrin Agang gave Region 7 its first medal with a bronze finish in the secondary’s 5,000-meter run.
Dulangon said the delegation is optimistic of its chances of a decent finish despite suffering “some setbacks beyond our means.”
“We have some athletes who failed to come because of conflicts in schedule like their families having scheduled trips abroad. We have a teacher who was afflicted with chickenpox and an athlete who fell ill because of mumps,” said Dulangon. “We also have a cook who had to rush home because his three-year-old daughter died. Despite all these, we keep things running smoothly against all odds.”
A parade will be held at 9 a.m. today and measures are being taken to make sure that the athletes will not fall ill due to the searing heat.
Officials of Region 7 were set to hold a meeting last night to discuss its preparations for today’s opening ceremony.
“Our faith in Senor Sto. Niño is always strong. Hopefully, there will be no untoward incident that will happen for the duration of the competition,” said Dulangon.
In last year’s competition in Dapitan City, Region 7 finished fourth with 329 points, 100 points behind third-placer Region 4-A, which gathered 429.50 points.
Perennial overall champion National Capital Region (NCR) dominated the multi-sporting event with 572.66 points.
In the 2010 Palaro, Region 7 wound up with 214.34 points, also good for fourth place.
This year’s Palaro will once again a adapt an “eco-friendly” competition, where some 10,000 students, coaches and sports officials from public and private elementary and high schools across the country are expected to participate.