PSC revives Batang Pinoy competition

After a seven-year hiatus, the Batang Pinoy has been revived by the Philippine Sports Commission with five regional legs and a national final set December 10 to 13 in Naga City.

The 2011 Batang Pinoy is open for athletes athletes aged 13 to 15 with the best athletes from the regional legs competing in the national finals.

The Mindanao regionals will be held in Zamboanga City on October 27-30, the Visayas leg will be on November 10-13 in Dumaguete City, National Capital Region leg on November 17 to 20 at the University of Makati, the North Luzon regionals will be held in Baguio City from November 24 to 27, the Southern Tagalog regionals on December 1 to 4 in Sta. Cruz, Laguna.

Archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, three-on-three basketball, boxing, chess, gymnastics, judo, swimming, table tennis, lawn tennis, taekwon-do, wrestling and weightlifting will be part of the calendar of the events in the Batang Pinoy that was last held in 2004.

PSC commissioner and acting executive director Joaquin Loyzaga hopes that the athletes that will be discovered in this year’s edition of the Batang Pinoy will be tapped for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

“We are hoping that we can identify potential athletes on a regional and national level for the Youth Olympic Games from different sectors which includes the out-of-school youth,” said PSC commissioner and acting executive director Joaquin Loyzaga after the launch of the event Monday.

Loyzaga also said that the event will also serve as a complement for the Palarong Pambansa where the first and second year high school athletes can already show their talents before the Palaro.

The event is in partnership with the Philippine Olympic Committee, Department of Education, Department of Interior and Local Government and the Leagues of Provinces, Cities, Municipalities and Barangays.

During the launch, the PSC also gave out plaques of appreciation to corporate sponsors which included TV5 for throwing their support in the 2011 Philippine National Games in Negros Occidental.

Sports5 head Vitto Lazatin received the plaque in behalf of the network for being one of the media partners of the event, which was also attended by several national sports association heads and athletes.

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