Calinan, Crossing Bayabas and Teofilo V Fernandez ES share honors in 1st GET Track Invitational
DAVAO CITY – Calinan Elementary School along with Crossing Bayabas ES and Teofilo V. Fernandez ES shared honors as they finished with similar standings at the winner’s podium in the first Guillermo E. Torres Invitational Track competition at the University of Mindanao Matina campus.
Calinan and Crossing Bayabas National High School finished with similar three gold medals to top the Secondary division. Calinan also had two silvers and two bronze medals while Crossing Bayabas added a lone silver and four bronzes.
Davao City National High came second with two gold medals followed by Dona Carmen National High with a 1-2-2 gold-silver-bronze count.
John Paul Diamonte, a student from Crossing Bayabas NHS acquired three gold medals making him the only aspiring track and field player to bring home the top spot in the 400-M, 800-M sprint and 4x100 relay categories.
For the Elementary division, Teofilo V. Fernandez Elementary School emerged as the top medal getter with three golds, five silvers and two bronze medals followed by Ma-a Elementary School with two golds, two silvers and three bronze medals while Imelda Elementary (22-3) and Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Elementary School (2-1-0) came in close second and third.
Some 13 schools took part in the event which featured only track events such as the 50-meter sprint, 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter sprint and 4x100 relay, while for the secondary were 100-meter sprint, 200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter sprint and 4x100 relay.
“The vision of the GETorres Invitational Track Competition was to involve youth to sports especially those from the grassroots level which are students from public schools. Dr. Guillermo P. Tor- res, University of Mindanao’s President was once a track and field player himself and he wants to inspire young people to make themselves involved in track and field without being intimidated by elite athletes. According to him, he wants aspiring athletes to experience competing in actual playing venues that would encourage them to engage in sports,” said Jeffrey Tan, chairman of the organizing committee.
Backing the event are th Philippine Sports Commission and Department of EducationXI, PATAFA-XI together with media partners, Mindanao Times, Retro 95.5, Wild FM and Radyo Ukay.