HOLDING and organizing open tournaments in around 14 sports events where Asian countries excelled in the recent 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics will be among the goals of the Philippine Sports Commission this year.
Commissioner Ramon Fernandez, who has oversight function on the PSC’s programs in the Visayas, said this will one of his priorities in the coming months.
“We are organizing a Visayas Open in many sports. We are analyzing and looking at the medal tally and results of the Rio Olympics. Tinitingnan naming kung saan sport ang may Asian medallist,” said Fernandez.
In the recent Olympiad, it was noted that Asian athletes excelled and won medals in weightlifting, diving, swimming, shooting, table tennis, judo, gymnastics, canoeing, archery and fencing.
“Iyun ang gusto namin sa programa (for Visayas),” added Fernandez.
He explained that since arnis is a considered a national sport, they will add it to their list of events that will have open tournaments.
Fernandez said they plan to focus on 14 disciplines and will do the open competitions on a quarterly basis.
Meanwhile, more activities of the Children’s Games will also be held in the coming months.
Fernandez said that after they held seven such activities last year in the Visayas region, there will 42 that’s in the pipeline this time around.
“We have done two in Dumaguete, now we will have 2 every weekend in the different cities of the Visayas,” added Fernandez.
Recently, the PSC, through the Philippine Sports Institute conducted the Children’s Games’ ‘Palaro Kontra Droga: PSC-PSI Manila Multi-Sport Camp’ in Smokey Mountain, Tondo.
The event was intended for the youth of rural families residing in Smokey Mountain Field in Tondo, Manila.