Visayas rallies, nails Little Olympics title a 3rd time

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Team play came to the fore anew over the weekend as Visayas retained the overall crown for the third straight time in the Milo Little Olympics National Finals and brought home the Perpetual Trophy.

After groping for form in individual events at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center here, Team Visayas flashed its superiority in team competitions and foiled National Capital Region’s bid to end two years of runner-up finishes.

The Visayans ruled football, badminton, scrabble and volleyball in the elementary and secondary divisions to amass 639.5 points, 41.5 clear of NCR.

“As I’ve said since Day 1, we’re really focusing on the team events,” said regional head Ricky Ballesteros. “Our athletes are given enough exposure in those events, and aside from enjoying, they are also out to win.”

The Big City bets started strong in the three-day meet courtesy of their prized tracksters but failed to sustain their momentum in the team events.

The Big City team collected 598.5 points, 310.5 coming from its secondary athletes, who showed the way in athletics (girls), badminton (boys), chess (girls), gymnastics, sepak takraw, swimming, table tennis (girls), taekwondo (girls) and tennis (boys).

Despite their stinging defeat, NCR is expected to go all out next year when it hosts the annual sporting spectacle for budding national athletes, but Visayas vowed to be at its full strength again.

“We’re expecting NCR to give us a tougher time next year because of their homecourt edge, but we will be prepared. We’re ready to conquer Manila,” Ballesteros said.

With its elementary athletes making their presence felt notably in taekwondo (girls), Mindanao finished a fighting third anew with 344 points, just seven points ahead of host Luzon.

The host team drew 185 of its 337 points from its high school athletes, who stamped their class in chess (boys) and taekwondo (boys).

A grand fireworks display at the sprawling main venue and a victory party formally closed the annual meet, to the delight of Milo officials led by AVP and sports executive Pat Goc-Ong.

“Generally, it was a very successful event, and we got the expected support from the Pangasinan provincial government,” said Goc-Ong. “We would like to thank all the participants, the officials and the crowd for their solid support.”