Organizers shift to new groupings

The Department of Education (DepEd) and the organizing committee of the Cebu City Olympics decided to change the grouping of schools participating in the annual multi-sporting meet set to officially unfold this Friday at the Cebu City Sports Center.

From the usual unit grouping of schools, organizers decided to divide the teams to north and south with each composed of four clusters both in the elementary and secondary divisions.

Aside from that, private schools that are members of the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. (Cesafi) will be grouped to form one team. Last year’s secondary champion Abellana National School will stand as a single team for a total of ten teams vying for the title.

The new grouping means that the powerhouse University of Cebu will be competing together with athletes from the University of Visayas, Southwestern University, University of San Carlos and other Cesafi member schools.

Winners here will compete in the upcoming Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) meet early December in Dumaguete. Top performers of that meet will then make up the Central Visayas team that is aiming to improve its fourth-place finish in the Palarong Pambansa also slated to be held in Dumaguete.

“We know that the Cesafi will help us a lot and we also know that Dumaguete City’s hosting of the CVIRAA and the Palarong Pambansa will give us a home court advantage,” said Cebu City Olympics technical director Danilo Villadolid in yesterday’s official launching of the meet at the CCSC. “But we have to work together to achieve our goal of becoming champions in Palarong Pambansa.”

The opening ceremonies will be this Friday afternoon at the CCSC. It will be highlighted by the turnover and unveiling of the official certificate of authentication from the Guiness World Record for the biggest chess tournament hosted by Cebu City last January. The ceremony will be headed by Cebu City Sports Commission chairman Edward Hayco.