Little Olympics kicks off today

CEBU CITY—After ending the Visayas’ stranglehold of the Milo Little Olympics last year, National Capital Region seeks a second straight overall crown as action in the fifth staging of the battle of champions goes full blast here today.

The Big City bets will be hard pressed to defend their crown as the finest school-based athletes from the Visayas, Luzon and Mindanao converge in the Queen City of the South.

About 1,600 athletes—selected from an initial 22,000 that competed in the four regional qualifiers—will vie for top honors in 13 disciplines in the national finals, which was declared open by Milo Sports Executive Andrew Neri at Cebu City Sports Complex last night.

Events lined up in the two-day competition include athletics, badminton, chess, football, gymnastics, lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, sepak takraw and scrabble.

Team Visayas is looking for a fourth title in five years and Milo Little Olympics Visayas organizer Ricky Ballesteros expressed confidence that the contingent will reclaim the crown in the Games.

“Not only are we driven by skilled teams this year we also have a very strong motivation to win because of recent events caused distress to friends and family,” said Ballesteros.