THE Batang Pinoy National Championship is scheduled to resume this year in Ilocos Sur from December 17 to 22.
The multisport competition organized by the Philippine Sports Commission for children aged 10 to 15 is making a comeback after being mothballed for three years owing to the pandemic. This year’s Batang Pinoy has already attracted 7,000 participants from 81 provinces and 144 cities.
The competition will be hybrid in nature as nine out of the 17 sports will be contested face-to-face, namely archery, athletics, badminton, chess, cycling, table tennis, swimming, weightlifting, and obstacle course racing, a demonstration sport.
A total of eight sports will be held virtually, namely arnis, dancesport, judo, karate, muay, pencak silat, taekwondo, and wushu. Some of the participants now in the process of submitting their entries until October 31 with the judging to start thereafter.
A total of 1,995 medals, 600 of which are gold, will be at stake in the competition that was last held in 2019 in Puerto Princesa.
PSC chairman Noli Eala and Ilocos Sur governor Jeremias ‘Jerry’ Singson formally signed the memorandum of agreement for the staging of the Batang Pinoy on Thursday in a press conference.
“The 2022 Batang Pinoy National Championship is actually going to be the first major PSC-organized competition under my watch and that is why I am very honored to do it in the Province of Ilocos Sur from where the Ealas come from,” said Eala.
“It is our honor and pride to host the Batang Pinoy 2022 and the Province of Ilocos Sur is very excited when I announced that finally we will host the Batang Pinoy. Nagpapasalamat po ako kay Chairman Eala that you accepted and chose us to host the Batang Pinoy 2022. Malaking bagay po ito sa amin because through sports, makikilala na naman po ang Ilocos Sur and hopefully mabubuhay ulit ang aming economy through sports” said Singson.
The Batang Pinoy is one of the PSC’s programs for grassroots development, and has already produced the likes of Agatha Wong of wushu and Rose Jean Ramos of weightlifting.
“I know that it will be a very exciting time for our young athletes and we certainly hope that this will finally give them an opportunity to compete, interact and be part of the community of young athletes that will be part of their holistic development as healthy citizens of this country,” said Eala.
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