Maasin City gears up for Batang Pinoy Nat’l Finals

THE MAASIN City team for the upcoming Batang Pinoy National Finals on Nov. 19 to 23 in Bacolod City is ready to compete against rivals from the other qualifying legs all over the country.

Maasin City Mayor Maloney Samaco, who was instrumental in Maasin City’s successful hosting job of the Batang Pinoy Visayas qualifying leg, told Cebu Daily News the 15 years old and below athletes are now ready for the Bacolod meet.

“We are ready to send all our qualified athletes to Bacolod City and compete with the best of the country,” Samaco said.

The host team may have failed to snare the overall title in the Visayas leg but it is still among the stronger teams in the Visayas as it finished fifth overall in the medal tally with nine gold, 23 silver and 36 bronze medals in the field of 37 competing teams.

Leading the campaign of Southern Leyte’s capital city, is its gymnastics cheerdance and futsal teams, which snared gold medals in their respective events.

The Maasin City gymnastics cheerdance team is composed of Mary Grace Castillo Joshua Coraza, John Albert Dayola, Mary Rose Egido, Dency Anthony Casas and Marvin Capistrano.

Also in the team are Shella Mae Nunez, Orblyne Marie Obligado, Ruth Wacay, Abdul Gaffor Unti, Ibrahim Unti, Marie Katherine Gerardo, Kathrine Cadavero and Mariza Batistil among others.The Maasin City Futsal team, on the other hand, is anchored by Lian Nathaniel Aring and Dennis Atienza, while wrestling gold medallist Alexis Costillas will also be present for the team.Maasin City has other potential gold medallists in the soft tennis event as it plucked majority of the gold medals in the Visayas qualifying leg but the organizing Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) scrapped the event along with judo and pencak silat due to low turnout of participants. /Correspondent JADE S. VIOLETA