Batang Pinoy aces to join Children of Asia tilt

Outstanding performers of the recent Batang Pinoy Games will compete with the best young athletes from 44 countries in the 6th Children of Asia Games next year in Yakutsk, Russia.

The multisport event will feature athletes 15 years old and below patterned after the Olympics and organized under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco Jr. and POC executives Romy Magat and Celia Kiram discussed the country’s participation in the Games scheduled July 5 to 17 with Children of Asia International Committee president Dmitry Glushko and secretary general Sergei Khatylykov who visited Manila and Cebu recently.

“We will send our outstanding Batang Pinoy performers there and measure themselves against the best 15-and-under athletes in Asia,” said Cojuangco.

Filipino athletes will showcase their skills against young athletes from 44 other countries under the Olympic Council of Asia along with the ancient Olympic city of Greece as guest participant.

According to Glushko, the Children of Asia Games is the preparatory continental tournament for the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires where the world’s best athletes in the 16 to 18 age bracket are set to compete.

“In fact, several medalists in the 2012 Children of Asia Games graduated and also won medals in the YOG in Nanjing (China) last year,” said Glushko through his interpreter Khatylykov.

Magat, the POC’s pointman in the Batang Pinoy, said they would immediately identify the talents set to compete in Yakutsk where 22 sports, 14 of them Olympic disciplines, will be played.

Swimmers Miguel Barreto and Raven Faith Alcoseba, triathlete Nicole Eijansantos and tracksters Veruel Verdadero and Gianeli Gatinga emerged as the stars of the Batang Pinoy National Finals held last week in Cebu City.