Cebu City Niños overall champs still of CVIRAA

CEBU, Philippines — Even with fewer golds this time compared to their previous campaign, the Cebu City Niños still emerged as overall champion of the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) Meet 2025 over the weekend in Bayawan City.

The Niños finished the week-long sports conclave among elementary and high school student-athletes from across Region 7 with 105 gold, 89 silver and 73 bronze medals.

In the elementary division, Cebu City prevented Bohol Province from taking the glory away from them by just a single gilt.

The Niños seized 36 golds, 28 silvers and 26 bronzes as against Bohol’s 35-20-32 gold-silver-bronze haul. Lapu-Lapu City settled for third with a 17-2-8 medal count.

Cebu City got the bulk of its golden harvest from gymnasts with 22 golds, five of which were produced by Stacey Eunice Mag-aso.

The Niños pocketed four golds each in arnis and swimming courtesy of Josh Francis Auditor and Hilary Mary Ylaya, respectively, a gold from high jumper Jay Ian Nacua, and two other golds each from chess, dancesport and football.

In the secondary level, the Niños were dominant with 69 golds, 61 silvers and 47 bronzes, about double than Dumaguete City’s 34-32-27 output.

Cebu City struck 17 golds in gymnastics, 12 in dancesport, nine from swimming and eight from taekwondo. The Niños also reigned supreme in chess and wrestling with four golds apiece, arnis with three, and badminton, wushu and pencak silat with two golds each.

The Niños also ruled the girls futsal and 5x5 basketball as well as the boys football and bvolleyball.

Sean Kyle Carillo prevented Cebu City from a gold medal shutout in athletics after winning the 400m run. Gabriel David Misa meanwhile topped the table tennis boys singles.

In the overall standings,  Bohol ended up second with 61 golds, 51 silvers and 79 bronzes followed by Cebu Province with 42-40-79, Dumaguete City with 36-45-40 and Mandaue City with 31-43-56 tally.

Rounding up the Top 10 cast were Tagbilaran City (31-26-29), Lapu-Lapu (29-15-28), Negros Oriental (27-36-28), host Bayawan City (19-18-26) and Toledo City (11-9-10).

In the Para Games for differently abled athletes, Mandaue City grabbed the top spot with 22 golds, 10 silvers and nine bronzes. Cebu Province landed at second place with 12-15-11 and Cebu City third with 8-21-13.

There’s practically no rest for all the gold medalists as they brace next for a tougher challenge of representing Central Visayas in the Palarong Pambansa 2025 scheduled from May 24 to June 2 in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte. — (FREEMAN)