LSA athletes competes in National Batang Pinoy 2011 this December

By Provincial Media Relations Center
December 7, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Fourteen athletes of the Leyte Sports Academy have qualified to compete in the newly revived Batang Pinoy 2011 after they garnered gold and silver medals in the Batang Pinoy Visayas Leg in Dumaguete City last November.

Former board member Rowil Batan who now heads the Leyte Sports Academy of the provincial government says LSA’s sports scholars earned spots to compete in the National Batang Pinoy 2011 to be held in Naga City, Camarines Sur on December 10-13.

Batan said this would be a good exposure for the athletes to compete in the national level and be able to compete with athletes who have undergone trainings abroad.

“We have fairly raw sports talents at the academy now as we have just started more than a year ago. Competitions such as this will be a very good exposure for them. We are just thankful that they earned spots to compete in the national level,” Batan said.

Though he hopes the athletes to do well in the upcoming Batang Pinoy, the LSA management is not expecting much for a medal haul considering the other contingents have years of training to back on way ahead of the LSA athletes.

Leyte Gov. Carlos Jericho Petilla meanwhile assured support to the athletes’ bid in the Batang Pinoy 2011 event saying he is proud the athletes are doing well in their recent respective competitions.

LSA athletes figured well in the Leyte Provincial Meet 2011 in Alangalang and is also looking forward to a good medal standing in the EVRAA Meet next year.

To further strengthen the country’s sports development program, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) revived the Batang Pinoy. After being shelved for eight years, the Batang Pinoy has been designed to discover athletes 15 years old and below.

The Batang Pinoy 2011 is held in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Leagues of Provinces, Cities, Municipalities and Barangays.

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the various national sports associations run and oversee the technical management of the event.

Unlike the school-based Palarong Pambansa, the Batang Pinoy caters to out-of-school youths through the joint effort of the PSC and the host local government unit.

High performing athletes in Batang Pinoy 2011 shall undergo high-level training for three years in preparation for the second Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China in 2014.

Batang Pinoy 2011 is supported by Smart, Maynilad, Summit Natural Drinking Water and held in cooperation with MILO, Jollibee, The British Council, Standard Insurance and Negros Navigation-Super Ferry.