In a closely contested battle whose winner was decided down to the final event, Team Visayas unfortunately blinked first.
The Bisdaks put up a gallant effort but eventually fell short in the 5th National Milo Little Olympics to a determined National Capital Region (NCR) squad.
Results in tennis were the last to be transmitted yesterday and prior to the release of those results, Visayas was leading in the overall points tally.
However, the Bisdaks failed to sweep the tennis event, winning the secondary boys and girls and elementary girls competitions. They failed in the elementary boys event.
Had Visayas swept all tennis titles, that would have meant 15 more points to the Bisdaks’ tally. Instead, NCR retained its crown, finishing with 615 overall points. Visayas was just six points behind with 609.
“NCR was just the better team even though we had the home court advantage. I’d like to congratulate them (NCR) for defeating a highly-motivated Visayan team,” Visayas delegation head and National organizer Ricky Ballesteros said.
NCR made a living from the points-rich athletics and swimming events, which were held at the Cebu City Sports Center.
They also won in gymnastics, sepak takraw, secondary girls volleyball, elementary scrabble, tennis and boys volleyball.
Visayas, meanwhile, faltered in some of the events that were supposed to be dominated by them such as volleyball, badminton, sepak takraw, chess and gymnastics.
Still, they ruled in football, scrabble, table tennis and lawn tennis. But that one loss in elementary boys tennis spelled the difference.
The elementary boys team of Dominic and Joseph Enriquez, Marc Suson and Zander Ybañez were relegated to fourth place. The boys’ title was won by Team NCR’s Joseph Anida, Hans Co, Joshua Diva, Aljun Talatayod and Sherwin Villacorte.
Ballesteros said that despite the loss, credit should still be given to the entire Visayas team, whose athletes were affected by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake last Oct. 15 and supertyphoon “Yolanda” last Nov. 8.
“A lot of their training venues were used as evacuee or relief operation centers that’s why a lot of athletes were not able to train properly during that time. But we’re still happy that not a single one of team Visayas’ athletes were harmed by the typhoon and earthquake,” Ballesteros said. “We’ve seen them fight for two days and for that, we are very proud of them.”
Team Luzon for the first time in the five-year junior multi-sporting meet finished third place with 416 points, beating Mindanao, which wound up with 400 points.
NCR banked on its Philippine Youth trainees to rule the swimming event. Ballesteros earlier said that NCR has a strong team in swimming because of the presence of those swimmers.
“It’s true that we have some national youth team members and Palarong Pambansa qualifiers but majority of the athletes who competed for NCR are second stringers. That’s why I was very surprised that we emerged as the overall champions,” NCR delegation head Dr. Robert Milton Calo said.
MOA WINNERS
Despite losing the crown, Team Visayas still had something to be proud of as 19 athletes were named Most Outstanding Athletes (MOA). NCR had 14 MOA winners.
The Visayas MOA winners in the elementary side are Pearl Abellar (athletics), Carl Bernard Bejasa (badminton), Vic Glysen Derotas (chess), Dustin Ramirez (football), Renante Padilla Jr. (gymnastics) Daniela Reggie Dela Pisa (gymnastics), Cristella Marie Sampan (lawn tennis), Psalm Daniel Aquino (swimming), Lloyd Kyle Lebosada (table tennis), Trisha Ann Gonzales (table tennis), Cha Ynah Labiste (taekwondo) and Chenae Basarte (volleyball).
In the secondary division, the awardees are Hanna Tudtud (badminton), Mario Lorenzo Ceniza (football), Jan Godfrey Seno (lawn tennis), Jana Marie Pages (lawn tennis), Phil Robert Figues (scrabble), Jill Elaine Ugbinada (scrabble) and Athena Comaingking (table tennis).
Another bright spot for Visayas was its elementary girls team composed of the vaunted Catmon Integrated School spikers.
The team won its fifth straight crown in this event after demolishing Team Luzon’s Holy Family Academy-Angeles in the finals, 25-16, 25-13, at the University of Southern Philippines-Foundation (USP-F) gym in Lahug. /with reports from correspondent Jade S. Violeta