Baguio trounces rest of North Luzon, trains guns at national ‘Batang Pinoy’
- Published on Saturday, 03 December 2011 14:06
- Category: Sports
by Isagani S. Liporada
BAGUIO CITY –About 600-athletes from 16-regions in Northern Luzon jockeying for tickets to the national round. Three hundred seventy-seven medals in contention in 16-sports disciplines.
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And host Baguio City maintains 171-medals composed of 63-golds, 54-silvers, and 54-bronzes as the ‘chosen many” ready themselves for the final round of the “Batang Pinoy” national youth games in the City of Naga this December 10 to 16.
Topping Baguio’s gold medal heist are members of the city’s track and field team with a 28-29-29 gold, silver, bronze medal output - a half of Team Baguio’s total medal harvest.
Acting city sports officer Gaudencio Gonzales said, “The Baguio athletes’ familiarity with high altitude training and their never-say-die attitude played a vital role in Team Baguio’s excellent overall performance.”
“We are basically banking on the same advantages in training as we prep our gold and silver medalists for the national round of the youth games,” he added.
Meanwhile, Baguio’s formidable assemblage of jins showed national superiority anew with a virtual cleanup of the medal table in taekwondo making Gonzales pun, “If our kids can’t run, they will battle.”
The jins mined 14- of the 16 gold medals in contention ending with a 14-7-4 gold, silver, bronze romp – making taekwondo the second highest medal contributor for Baguio.
Team Baguio Taekwondo gave away 2-medals to Ilocos Sur in the middle and heavyweight classes in the men’s division where the city’s taekwondo schools lacked qualified players in height as well as bulk.
One of the city’s taekwondo coaches Arnold Oglayon of the Baguio Defenders Taekwondo Do Jang (BDTDJ) related, “What our players lacked in height we gained in speed.”
“However, we cannot be too complacent as the best from the rest of the country are all bent in taking away our consistency in topping national competitions especially in the juniors’ class.”
Team Baguio Taekwondo is composed of jins from the BDTDJ, the Ultimate Fitness Center, Bravehearts TKD, and GB Gym.
Meantime, placing a distant second in the medal tally is La Union Province with 10-9-8; in third is Malolos City with 10-7-7; fourth is Angeles with 7-17-9, fifth is Pangasinan with 5-11-12.
Executive Order No. 44 created the Philippine Youth Games–Batang Pinoy which serves as the national sports competition program for kids 13 to 15 years of age.
The Philippine Olympic Committee and National Sports Associations, both non-government entities and internationally recognized authorities in different sports run and oversee the technical management of the event.
High performing of the 2011 edition of Batang Pinoy athletes shall undergo training for three years in preparation for the second Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China in 2014, including other international age group competitions.
Next stop for the Baguio Athletes is Naga City where they will battle the best in Mindanao, Visayas, National Capital Region, and Southern Luzon.**isl
