Batang Pinoy NCR leg unwraps

MANILA, Philippines -  The Philippine Sports Commission’s Batang Pinoy National Capital Region qualifying leg begins today with the formal opening ceremony at the newly refurbished Marikina Sports Center in Marikina.

Hostilities, however, will begin tomorrow in archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, boxing, chess, karatedo, lawn tennis, swimming, taekwondo and table tennis at various sites in the city.

Judo and girls volleyball, meanwhile, are already holding their national finals in this particular leg.

After the NCR elims, the Batang Pinoy, open to students and out-of-school youth athletes aged 18 years old and below, will go to Pangasinan for the Northern Luzon stage Oct. 10-13, Oriental Mindoro for the Southern Luzon leg Oct. 24-27, Cagayan de Oro for the Mindanao Leg Nov. 7-10 and Tacloban City for the Visayas leg Nov. 21-24.

The national finals will be held in Iloilo City Dec. 5-8.

The event hopes to discover athletes who could be tapped and developed for future national teams.

For this year’s edition, PSC commissioner Jolly Gomez said the top performers will be sent to train in San Diego in California, Brisbane in Australia or Xiamen in China.

“We’re talking to these potential partners,” said Gomez.

He added the top performers will have a chance to make it to the national team set to compete in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Sports School Competition in Vietnam this year.

“We’re now closely working with the Department of Education and we would like to start building up a strong team to compete in Vietnam,” he said.