Disastrous performance
Central Visayas crashes to 9th overall, its worst finish ever in Palaro
SAN JOSE, ANTIQUE — Before they left for the 60th Palarong Pambansa, the
delegates of Central Visayas were aiming for a second-place finish overall.
It turned out later that they were chasing rainbows.
In a disastrous performance to forget, Region 7 crashed to ninth overall, its worst showing ever in the history of the annual sports conclave among elementary and secondary studentathletes that formally came to a close at the Binirayan Sports Complex here yesterday.
The sight of Samantha Gem Limos, the fastest female runner in last year's Palaro in Legazpi, Albay, settling for only bronze in the century dash this time and a gold medal blackout in taekwondo event that CV to dominate were among the major drawbacks that hit the region hard.
At the end of the weeklong event, Central Visayas could only collect a total of 67 medals broken down into 20 golds, 18 silvers and 19 bronzes to plummet near the tailend of the Top 10 performers, just five golds ahead of Central Luzon. It placed fifth in the secondary battle with 14-10-19 and a far 10th in elementary with a measly 6-8-10 medal haul.
In the medal-rich events, CV got only two golds in athletics through Limos in the 200m run and Riza Jane Vallente in the 400m hurdles and only one gilt in swimming from the secondary boys 4x50m freestyle relay.
Making the matter worse, CV laid a big fat egg in both the poomsae and kyorugi of taekwondo competition.
Not even the famed Carmen volleybelles were spared of CV's misfortunes after losing Central Luzon in straight sets, 25-23, 2520 in their final match.
Also, CV's elementary basketball players were only good for silver after being badly beaten by the National Capital Region, 86-41, while their secondary counterparts could only turn over a bronze after escaping past Calabarzon, 77-71, in their duel for third.
If there's a little consolation for CV at the end of what had been a tumultuous campaign, it snared the elementary football crown after edging Western Visayas, 1-0.
Simon del Campo sank the winning goal for the region, whose top officials have a lot of things to ponder and analyze especially on what went wrong that led to CV's disappointing, if not, unacceptable performance.
While Central Visayas was thrown into a bleak spot it never expected, the powerhouse NCR rejoiced up to high heavens as it easily ran away with its 13th straight overall championship with 98 golds, 66 silvers and 45 bronzes, a harvest of 66-4526 medal came from the secondary level and a 32-2119 tally in the elementary division.
Calabarzon bested Western Visayas for second place in the overall race with a 41-57-57 count. The host region settled for third with 38-29-40 followed by Negros Island (26-27-36), Socsargen (26-22-35), Cordillera Administrative Region (2621-21), Davao (22-25-24), Northern Mindanao (20-2042), Central Visayas (20-1829) and Central Luzon (1518-28).