KORONADAL CITY -- Host South Cotabato province completed its “grand slam” title bid in the 2018 Soccsksargen Regional Athletic Association (SRAA) after emerging as champion for the third consecutive year.
The “Dreamweavers” rallied in the final hours of the competition at the South Cotabato Sports Complex on Wednesday to foil the upset bid of perennial runner-up General Santos City for the SRAA championship with 93 golds, 102 silvers and 78 bronze medals.
General Santos City, which momentarily took the lead in the overall medal tally early Wednesday, finished with 87 golds, 65 silvers and 76 bronzes.
This city landed third with a 44-51-61 medal haul, followed by North Cotabato with 33-47-57, Tacurong City with 25-7-5, Sarangani with 22-20-47, Kidapawan City with 21-29-39, Sultan Kudarat with 8-15-36 and Cotabato City with 7-6-11.
“That (championship) was our goal from the start. It’s an overwhelming win for us,” said Department of Education (DepEd)-South Cotabato sports coordinator Alex Floro.
He said the performance of their athletes mainly “leveled up” this year due to their improved training program and support from local government units, especially the provincial government.
The official specifically cited athletes in the secondary division that contributed a total of 62 golds, 63 silvers and 45 bronzes.
The elementary team placed second to General Santos City with a 31-33-39 medal tally.
All medal winners will receive cash incentives from the provincial government of South Cotabato.
Overall, South Cotabato dominated the competitions in athletics, swimming, badminton, wrestling, archery, gymnastics and boxing.
Floro said attributed the strong finish to their year-round training programs that “focuses on the development of the athletes and not for (getting) the gold.”
The province had tapped Olympian Henry Dagmil to train the athletics team, which has shown significant improvements these past years.
He said the year-round training starts with the Physical Education classes of local schools, wherein the potential athletes are initially identified and trained.
The selected athletes then compete in school intramurals and lower meets before culminating in the SRAA, he said.
Meantime, DepEd Region 12 also gave out various special awards to the participating delegations.
Koronadal City was awarded as the best in “saludo” Tacurong City as best in uniform, and Sultan Kudarat as the most disciplined delegation and the best in records management.(AMS/PNA)
