Cebu Daily News tops Milo sportswriting contest

CEBU Daily News (CDN) emerged the biggest winner in the sportswriting contest of the recent Milo Little Olympics Regional Finals where it copped two of three titles at stake.

Editorial Assistant Calvin Cordova snatched the championship trophy for his feature on Maryjoy Loberanis, a trackster from the University of San Carlos-Basic Education Dept. (USC-BED) who won five gold medals to help the school score the first-ever twin kill in the week-long tournament held mainly at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC).

CDN Correspondent Dale Rosal bagged the third place trophy for his story titled “Milo crowns new champ”- a story highlighting USC’s dethroning of the University of Cebu Webmasters in the secondary division.

UC was the secondary champion for the past 17 years before USC-BED’s came up with the magnificent run.

Titled “Girl on Fire,” Cordova’s article that came out on Aug. 29 chronicled the inspiring story of the petite Loberanis, who defeated bigger opponents en route to winning gold medals in the 400-meter, 800m, 1,500 runs, 4x100m and 4x400m relays.

The story discussed how Loberanis coped from an unfortunate incident that saw their house in barangay Camputhaw, Cebu City razed by fire last April 19.

Lost in the fire were Loberanis’ treasured medals that she had won from previous tournaments.

This year’s board of judges included Ms. Mia Mateo, Mass Communications professor at the Saint Theresa’s College; Dr. Reynaldo Caturza, Masscom professor at Cebu Normal University and Dr. Rosalinda Quijada, consultant DepEd Cebu City and DepEd Region 7.

Cordova, who won the same contest in 2011 and a two-time champion in the Milo Marathon sportswriting contest, received P7,500 cash and a trophy from tournament organizer and CCSC manager Ricky Ballesteros.

Rosal got P3,000 and a trophy. CDN sports editor Rick Gabuya was awarded the same amount that Cordova and Rosal received.