Webmasters, Warriors share spotlight in typhoon-delayed 23rd Cebu City Olympics

The University of Cebu (UC) and the University of San Carlos (USC) came out with guns ablaze as the typhoon-delayed 23rd Cebu City Olympics officially resumed yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) and in various venues around the city.

UC partially leads the secondary division with 23 gold, six silver and seven bronze medals. USC trails UC at second place with 13 gold medals, 11 silvers and 10 bronze medals.

USC’s elementary squad leads the competition after harvesting 24 gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze medals.

UC and USC harvested most of their gold medals in taekwondo and swimming competitions.

UC won 15 gold medals while its taekwondo jins contributed eight gold medals. USC also banked on its swimmers in the secondary and elementary division.

The multi-sporting meet was supposed to end yesterday but games were cancelled last Friday and Saturday due to supertyphoon “Yolanda,” causing it to extend.

But even if games resumed, some participating schools in the Cebu City Olympics failed to compete yesterday, according to Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu City Division sports coordinator Zenaida Gocotano. This is because some of them have yet to recover from the devastation of the recent storm.

In track and field, organizers can’t declare winners yet since some participants were not able to make it yesterday. They will be given a chance to prove themselves today.

“We can’t declare the winners because there are those who are in the mountain barangays who want to compete but can’t come because of the lack of transportation and other concerns brought by the typhoon last Friday,” Gocotano said. “We will give them a chance and we will not implement forfeiture to the teams that have valid reasons or reasons related to the inconvenience and problem brought by the typhoon.”

UC’s Karen Mae Indaya and Michael Ichiro Kong led UC’s gold medal harvest in the swimming competition after they got four and six gold medals, respectively.

The Webmasters gold medalists in the taekwondo competition were Dominic Sedullo (flyweight), Eric Garces Jr. (featherweight), Christian Tagarao (welterweight), Veronica Coran (finweight), Mayn Yengele Coran (flyweight), Maria Carmella Coran (bantamweight), Janna Andrae Lim (lightweight) and Marie Hanz Espina (welterweight).

USC was headed by Kyle Nemil, who won four gold medals while Junvic Tiro added two gold medals.

Games will continue today in different venues.