Pilipinas, Tara Bira battle cry for SEAG

It will definitely be a fighting Philippine team for next year’s SEA Games here in Manila.

So it seems when Pilipinas, Tara Bira, the Philippine Olympic Committee launched the official battle cry yesterday morning highlighting the celebration of the founding of the Olympic Movement through a 5K Olympic Day Fun Run held along Roxas Boulevard,

The Olympic Day Fun Run, which started and ended at the Baywalk across the Rajah Sulayman Plaza, is celebrated all over the world by different National Olympic Committees to promote and create awareness for the Olympic Movement.

The event was organized by the Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) headed by Tom Carrasco.

The cheer is a take-off from the Hala Bira chant in the Ati-atihan celebration.

POC president Cito Dayrit explained that, loosely translated, the cheer means "Let’s Go Philippines, Fight "adding that the Filipino athletes will do just that for the 2005 SEA Games.

Close to a thousand runners, including a number of athletes from the different National Sports Associations (NSA’s) joined the fun run and other activities that followed. Present were POC officials led by Dayrit, Steve Hontiveros, Hector Navasero, Noel Buenaventura, Benjie Ramos, Nestor Ilagan, PTA’s Cynthia Carreon, and celebrities Robin Padilla and Jackie Lou Blanco, and hosted by Ricky Yap Santos and former Asian sprint queen Lydia de Vega-Mercado.

The event, sponsored by Accel, Milo and Asian Center for Insulation Phils., also featured demonstrations by some NSA’s in karate-do, bodybuilding, gymnastics, and muay thai, and slogan-making contests.

The best slogan was turned in by the gymnastics’s group as overall winner among the NSA’s, the University of Makati (schools’ category), and the Laguna Sports Foundation (clubs). GAP’s winning slogan was "Active Pinoy, Charge Pinoy, Go Pinoy, Win."

"We may not have that much chance in the forthcoming Olympics with only our boxers and taekwon-do jins having the most potential among the athletes to win medals, but in the SEA Games next year, we will definitely be in contention, and our battle cry reflects the spirit of the Filipino athletes," said Dayrit.

The event was also supported by POC’s Sports For All Commission, the Manila Sports Council, Speedo, Red Cross, and the Western Police District – Traffic Enforcement Office.