Its gold or bust for stronger Bisdaks
For three straight years, Team Visayas has won the overall championship of the Milo Little Olympics National Finals bagging the coveted Perpetual Trophy in the process. In all those three title runs, Team Visayas has relegated powerhouse National Capital Region to a frustrated second.
This weekend, NCR gets its biggest chance to dethrone the Bisdaks when it hosts the fourth edition of the National Finals, eager and itching to finally end its string of bridesmaid finishes. The National Finals will open this Friday afternoon at the Marikina Sports Park.
Today, some 354 Visayas athletes and coaches start their journey to fourth nat’l title, wary but determined nonetheless, to not just extend their dominance of the country’s foremost multi-sporting meet but also to complete the full cycle of four championships.
“We need to act as one solid team and remain cautious all the time because we will be competing against NCR in their own homecourt. It will be an uphill battle,” said Visayas delegation head Ricky Ballesteros.
But the Bisdaks will be more than ready to meet the challenges head on.
Flaunting a stronger track and field team beefed up by the vaunted tracksters from the Ilo-ilo National High School and University of Cebu, perennial elementary badminton champion, Banilad Elementary School and its strong teams in ball games, Visayas is confident of bagging its fourth straight national overall crown.
ADDED MUSCLE
Also adding much-needed muscle to the Bisdaks’ campaign are the Southwestern University (SWU) volleyball team and the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) football squad, which ruled their respective events in the recent 17th Regional Finals by beating the reigning national champions.
Visayas’ main problem though will be swimming where NCR tankers appear second to none.
Ballesteros hopes to minimize the damage by including the third and fourth placers in the Regional Finals to somehow narrow the gap especially since the overall champion is determined by Points System.
Another burden for Team Bisdaks is the implementation of international rules which add more events in swimming as well as the changes in the rules of some sports. Ballesteros hopes to address this by instructing “the coaches to research more about international rules and adapt them during their training. We also told them that their athletes’ primary focus should be winning the National Finals.”
Ballesteros is also optimistic that the fortified line-up of Team Visayas will deliver the goods this year.
“For me, even if NCR’s title chances are boosted this year, the powerful combination of Cebuano and Ilonggo athletes playing as a single team, is more than enough to neutralize NCR’s perceived advantages,” said Ballesteros.
Team Visayas will leave today and will arrive in Manila tomorrow morning. The grand opening ceremony of the Fourth National Milo Little Olympics will start Friday afternoon.
