Marikina City—The National Capital Region (NCR) never let down its guard in the final day of competition in the 4th National Milo Little Olympics to steal the crown from the four-peat seeking Team Visayas yesterday at the Marikina Sports Park here.
The NCR bets took off to a sizzling start last Saturday and held on to the lead in the second day en route to dethroning the Bisdaks in this annual multi-sporting event.
NCR finished with a total of 614 points while Team Visayas settled for only 575. Mindanao overtook Luzon and took third place with 383.5 points while the latter managed 357.5.
“The win is actually the product of the desire of the coaches and athletes to train for months,” said NCR delegation head Robert Milton Calo. “I am thankful to the schools here in Manila for their interest in joining the regional finals.”
Before the games started, Calo already said he didn’t expect much from his team since the athletes making up NCR were mostly class B bets filling in for their top players who were committed to other tournaments.
But even its class B athletes were able to deliver, particularly in swimming and athletics.
NCR tankers shine
NCR went on a full blast in the final day by dominating the pool with 15 gold medals added to its initial harvest of 19 in the first day. The win in swimming was worth a whopping 50 points. The secondary division team of NCR also topped the athletics boys and girls competition worth 60 points. NCR also added wins in the gymnastics, sepak takraw, lawn tennis and volleyball.
NCR actually finished with a total of 320 points in the secondary division while its elementary division squad finished with 294 points. NCR’s elementary squad won in swimming, chess, gymnastics, scrabble and table tennis.
“We tried to analyze Visayas‘ excellence in team sports and we found out that we were lacking solid teams. Lucky for us this year, we were able to obtain strong teams,” said Calo, who said he is planning to hold a pre-qualifying competition before the scheduled regional finals of the Milo Little Olympics next year to further assess their weaknesses in some sports.
Meanwhile, the Bisdaks managed to shine in some sporting events they are known to be strong in.
They won the elementary badminton competition courtesy of Palarong Pambansa and Milo perennial champion Banilad Elementary School.
The Don Bosco Technology Center also took care of the elementary boys football competition by defeating Team Mindanao.
Inayawan Elementary School contributed 15 points after finishing on top in the sipa competition while the Cebu City Central School’s girls team in table tennis bagged 15 points after finishing on top.
Catmon retains volley title
The Catmon Elementary School girls volleyball team also retained its title worth 25 points.
Other noted Visayas teams that won were UC’s badminton team, USC’s secondary chess and table tennis squads and Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu’s secondary football team. Bright Academy’s girls team in the lawn tennis competition also placed first. But these wins weren’t enough to stop Team NCR.
“We saw it coming,” said Visayas delegation head Ricky Ballesteros. “We knew NCR would do its best to defend home court and it happened. We will do our best to win it back in Cebu next year.”
The next nationals is scheduled to be held back in Cebu next year. Team Visayas won its first title in Cebu, the second in Cagayan de Oro and the third in Pangasinan last year.