Sinulog sports events

The Cebu City Marathon, which is set this Sunday, is one of the many sporting events held during the Sinulog week to allow the visitors to maximize their stay in Cebu.

I am very happy that we have this race, which serves as the premiere running event of Cebu among the many that are being held all throughout the year.

The Cebu City Marathon is a showcase event and I wish the organizers all the best for the race. I missed the previous editions of the CCM as sometimes I tend to oversleep on Sundays. I hope to be up very early this weekend even if it is not for a golf game.

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While the CCM is relatively new, the annual Coral Invitational at Cebu Country Club has been held on the Sinulog week.

The tournament is the signature event of the club and is a member-guest event. Next Wednesday, we will see the 31st edition of the Coral Invitational.

I have covered the event for over 20 years now and this is one of those tournaments that I make sure I would not miss every year.

One reason is that I am this paper’s golf writer and the other is the fact that I have made many friends from the golf community all over the country the past two decades and during the Coral Invitational, I get to see many of those from outside Cebu come here to play.

One thing that I have noticed is that many teams playing in the tournament have been the same for many years now like it has become a pact for these partners to make sure they free up their calendars for the tournament every year.

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Another Sinulog sporting event is a baseball and softball tournament that is being held at the Labangon Elementary School field.

I learned about this only yesterday from Jesse Bernad, who is one person working very hard to promote batted sports in this part of the world.

I hope to catch some of the action this weekend as this is also one event that I personally enjoy watching now that I don’t have the chance to play anymore.

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Football lovers will also have their fill as the Sinulog Football Festival is set to kick off this weekend at the University of San Carlos-Talamban and San Roque Parish (Subangdaku, Mandaue) fields.

This is a project of the Cebu City Sports Commission, but is being organized by the Cebu Amateur Football Club.

This year, over 200 teams from Cebu and other parts of the country are seeing action.

The Sinulog festivities used to only include religious and cultural activities, but as the years have passed, sports events have also been included. This is truly going to be a sporty and festive celebration.

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MILESTONES: Belated happy birthday greetings go to Ulrich Napiza, Stanley Ong, Dr. Hope Valerie Solano, and Ida Evangelista-Benemerito, who turned a year older last Monday.

The same goes to Alvin Chiong of A. Salonga Music Center and Geraldine Abao-Baco, who celebrated yesterday.

Today’s greetings go to my mistah Lt. Col. Leandro Abeleda III, The Freeman’s Janet Montenegro, SM’s Pancho Ramirez, Jr., Alain Aliño, and Blanche Regual-Braun.

More power to all of you!