Badminton mess mars Day 1; CIT bags 3 golds

The first day of competition in the 21st Cebu City Olympics took off to a bad start yesterday after some confusion in the badminton event at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC).

Games in badminton were slightly delayed after some private schools weren’t able to submit their entries that resulted to only a few matches being played yesterday.

Because of this year’s changes that separates private schools from its division units, some small private schools still used the old grouping and relied on their former units.

Some coaches from the private schools did not pass their entries yesterday and some were not aware that they were already a lone delegation in the multi-sporting event, according to badminton tournament manager Lerma Binaoro.

“Maybe the unit heads of those private schools were not able to inform these schools, because all of the big private schools are already aware that they already competing for their own school,” said Ricky Ballesteros, the organizer of the 21st Cebu City Olympics.

The first round of the badminton tournament will continue today with half of the delayed matches to be played.

But action in other events went on smoothly  with the newly separated private schools leading the way.

In athletics, Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) hauled three gold medals combined from the elementary and secondary divisions.

CIT-U’s Axel James Taboada topped the shot put event with 8.10 meters while Bera Rose Saragena ruled the secondary girls division with a 7.70 m mark. Kenneth Bingco dominated the elementary boys high jump competition.

Unit 5’s John Paul Zaratan and Ria Japitan conquered the 1,500m run with a time of 5 minutes and 42 seconds and 5 minutes and 50 seconds, respectively.

Other gold medal winners yesterday were Jersell Cabatino from the University of Cebu (UC) (high jump), Jenneth Recto of Unit 8 (secondary girls 1,500m run), Syril Sheene Garcia of University of Southern Philippines-Foundation (USP-F) for the secondary girls shot put and Jan Ailyson Pajantong of University of San Carlos-Basic Education Department (USC-BED) for the elementary girls shot put.

In chess competition, USC-BED and Unit 6 are leading after three rounds of competition held at the CCSC gymnasium.

USC-BED banked on its elite young wood pusher Vic Glysen Derotas  to win all of the first three rounds while Unit 6 also sealed off the first day with a clean record.

In the boxing event, Dominic Castañares of Unit 6 defeated Jun Gabriel Besinga of Unit 7 in the 30-32kg division of the elementary division to qualify for the final round.

Jold Ian Dolapco also from ANS lost to Johnloyd Trasporte of Unit 8 in the 36-38kg division while Ramil Casañares of Unit 5 won over Junille Olivares of UC also in the 36-38kg division.

Raymund Namucatcat of ANS beat Jeffrey Quering of Unit 6 in the 46-49kg division while Kevin jake Ctaraja of Unit 8 defeated Jimboy Hilongo of ANS.

Action in athletics  and other sporting events will continue today at different venues in Cebu City.