Batang Pinoy 3rd leg opens

ILAGAN CITY, Isabela—The Philippine Sports Commission opened the third chapter of its regional talent search called the 2019 Philippine National Youth Games-Batang Pinoy yesterday at the Ilagan City Sports Complex here with an aim of producing not just winners but also athletes with potential.

PSC commissioner Ramon Fernandez said they will keep a watchful eye on those talents that they hope to hone and train into potential gold medal winners in international competitions like the Southeast Asian and Asian Games and even the Olympics.

There were a couple of unheralded boxers, in fact, who made heads turn in the Visayas Leg in Iloilo early this month.

Coming from a little-known Northern Samar town named Bobon, 14-year-old Fernando Lacana Jr. and Darwin Sevillano defied overwhelming odds and beat more illustrious foes from boxing hotbed Cebu to win gold medals.

Both Lacana and Sevillano, who were discovered carrying a heavy sack of copra back home in a poor town of Pambujan, thus made it to the National Finals set this September in either Ormoc or Tagbilaran where they hope to realize their dreams of becoming a Manny Pacquiao, whose rags-to-riches story is legendary.

“We want those kinds of athletes because this is what the Batang Pinoy is all about,” said Fernandez, who officially ushered in the Luzon Leg in yesterday’s start of this weeklong multi-sports meet for in and outof-school youth athletes aged 15 years old and below.