SANTA CRUZ, Philippines - Some 2,000 athletes and coaches coming from 700 private and public schools all over the Philippines will begin their quest to become this year's national champion as the 7th Milo Little Olympics (MLO) National Finals begins Saturday, October 24 and ends on October 25.
The MLO, which takes place this year at 3 playing venues in Lguna, is one of the Philippines' longest-running inter-school youth sports competition which aims to help in the identification of potential athletes.
Student athletes from elementary and secondary levels will be competing in 13 sports –badminton, basketball, chess, football, gymnastics, lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, Taekwondo, volleyball, sepak takraw and scrabble. This year, the organizers have added two new demo sports, arnis and karatedo.
(LIVE BLOG: 2015 MILO Little Olympics)
With 3 overall titles apiece, another head to head competition is expected between Team Visayas and this year's host, the National Capital Region (NCR).
Visayas had won the overall championship during the inaugural year of the national finals in 2009 and went on to continue their dominance in 2010 and 2011, which allowed them to bring home the perpetual trophy, which is given to the delegation who wins the national overall title for 3 straight years.
NCR, however, was able to wrestle the perpetual trophy when they became the overall champion from 2012 to 2014.
Team Visayas head of delegation Ricky Ballesteros said that he is confident of a good performance from his wards as they are now being reinforced by athletes from Iloilo and other parts of the Eastern and Western Visayas.
Changes to the MLO
Aside from the demo sports, the MLO introduces another change this year, the geographical splits. NCR athletes will now be joined by those from South Luzon while Luzon delegation will now have athletes from North and Central Luzon. Manning Visayas will be athletes from the Eastern, Central and Western Visayas while Mindanao will now include athletes from the Caraga Region.
This was announced by Milo Sports Executive Robbie De Vera during the press conference launching this year's national finals at the Shakey's Pizza in Malate last October 22, which was attended by all delegation heads.
NCR delegation head Robert Milton A. Calo said though that they will be putting up a good fight. “Hindi kami magpapahuli at hindi kami papayag na basta-basta na lang makuha yong korona,” said Calo.
Teams Mindanao and Luzon, however, cannot also be discounted, despite Luzon being in recovery after the the devastation of Typhoon Lando.
The 7th MLO National Finals would have been hosted by the Mindanao delegation this year and would have been held in Cagayan de Oro but hosting was transferred to NCR after some of CDO's sporting facilities were in need of repair.
De Vera said they chose Laguna as the venue “not just for their impeccable sports facilities but also for the support that the local government of Laguna was willing to extend.”
Laguna Gov. Ramil Hernandez has expressed his gratefulness that they were chosen because it is an opportunity for them to promote their tourism.
During the opening ceremony on October 23 at the Laguna Sports Complex, Hernandez welcomed all 4 delegations and formally declared the competitions open.
The opening ceremonies began with the parade of delegations, the lighting of the urn as well as presentations in karatedo and arnis, before it was capped by fireworks. – Rappler.com