MILO OLYMPICS Cebu to host Milo Olympics

The 22nd Milo Little Olympics Visayas Regional Finals will be on Aug. 24 to 27 in Cebu to take advantage of a long weekend.

The school-based sporting meet was first scheduled on Aug. 31 to Sept. 3 before Visayas leg head organizer Ricky Ballesteros proposed to change it.

“Aug. 24 to 27, final dates (of competition),” Ballesteros told SunStar Cebu. “I requested to move the date earlier so it will connect with the long holiday, because Aug. 28 is National Heroes’ Day.”

Ballesteros said that since Monday is holiday, the participants from Iloilo City, Bacolod, Dumaguete and Antique will have a day to spend in Cebu after the four-day competition.

The sports to be contested by the secondary and elementary levels are athletics, badminton, baskeball, football, gymnastics, lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, chess, scrabble, sepak takraw, volleyball, karatedo and arnis.

Ballesteros said that they have already contacted various schools outside of Cebu, and they are targeting 5,000 to 6,000 participants for this year.

The secondary division is open to Grades 7 to 10 students aged 13 to 17, and the cutoff year is 2001; the elementary division is for Grades 1 to 6 students aged 7 to 12 years old and the cutoff year is 2004.

The University of San Carlos-Basic Education (USC-Bed) will be aiming to defend its overall crown following a surprise finish last year in Iloilo. /