PUERTO PRINCESA?The Philippine Sports Commission has started to sift through the enormous list of medal winners in the 2008 Palarong Pambansa to identify the athletes who will be invited to the PSC regional training camps to be set up next month.

PSC chair William ?Butch? Ramirez said close to a hundred standouts in the Palaro will be chosen to undergo month-long tryouts before the school year opens in June to determine potential candidates to the national team.

The PSC project comes under Executive Order 433, which calls for the government sports agency to develop programs to hone Palarong Pambansa standouts in coordination with the Department of Education.

Ramirez said winners in boxing, taekwondo, swimming, athletics, archery and gymnastics will be in the priority list.

Expected to be picked are boxers Jerwin Ancajas (light flyweight), siblings Joan Vincent Moralde (powderweight) and Englebert Moralde Jr. (paperweight) and Mark Anthony Bariga (mosquito), who gave Davao a near sweep of the gold medals.

Also a solid choice is Gerson Nietes of Western Visayas, who averted a sweep by Davao as the cousin of reigning WBO minimumweight champion Donnie was adjudged as the best boxer of the Palaro.

In athletics, National Capital Region?s Isidro Del Prado Jr., Jose Renato Unso and Justin Tabunda are considered shoo-ins in the tryouts after steering the Big City tracksters to the secondary boys? title.

Del Prado and Unso, who clinched four golds each, are second-generation athletes just like Tabunda, who grabbed three golds on the track. Del Prado emerged as the most outstanding athlete in secondary boys? athletics.

Others who shone in athletics were sprinter Lindley Fran Navaja of Central Visayas (100m and 200m dash), Western Visayas? Vienna Mae Banebane (200m, 400m, 400m hurdles), Josie Malacad (1500m, 800m) and Maureen Emily Schrijver (elementary 100m, 200m, high jump).

Swimmers Banjo Borja (Calabarzon), John Brylle Zapanta (Bicol), Jeron Mercader (Mimaropa), Timothy Yap (NCR), Gian Daniel Berino (NCR), Hannah Dato (NCR), Loren Dale Echavez (Central Visayas), Jacklyn Judith Junio (Calabarzon), Ma. Claire Adorna (Calabarzon), Dorothy Hong (NCR), Tiara Beboney Tudio (Cotabato), Erika Visitacion (Calabarzon) and Patricia Yam (NCR) are also expected to get the committee?s nod.