Puerto Princesa City, Philippines — Central Visayas bagged just a bronze medal in gymnastics on Monday as hostilities began in the 2008 Palarong Pambansa.

The rhythmic gymnasts were a mere 1.25 points short of beating Region I for the silver in the event that was topped by the heavily favored athletes from the National Capital Region (NCR).

Central Visayas was also on the spotlight during the culmination of the opening ceremonies Sunday night, with the selection of Eva Psychee Patalinjug, a 13-year-old taekwondo, badminton and table tennis player from Lapu-Lapu City as this year's Ms. Palaro.

Patalinjug got the judges nod with her confident performance in the question and answer portion.

She was also adjudged Best in Regional Costume and Best in Filipiniana Attire.

Patalinjug bested 14 other candidates from the various other regions in the annual beauty search, which traditionally caps the opening ceremonies.

Officials were also encouraged by the strong performance shown by the football elementary team in its maiden game, blanking Caraga in a lopsided 5-0 win.

Football coach Joselito Bono said his players, all graduating elementary students from Don Bosco College, have prepared hard this entire year and are determined to improve from their runner up finish last year.

"The boys would like to make this a successful year before they graduate and finally get the gold that they missed last year," Bono said.

The players said they actually found the playing field rather small. They vowed to use their advantage in experience and better team work to prevail over their next assignments.

Equally showing a good start was the softball secondary girls, which defeated Central Luzon 5-1.

The secondary boys hoop squad, however, lost to Ilocos Region, 71-76. /Contributor Jhelyn Andal