■ Ofelia C. Empian
The Cordillera will send 700 athletes and coaches to the 2024 Palarong Pambansa in Cebu City on July 6 to 17.
Department of Education-Cordillera Director Estela Ca-riño said the athletes are currently training under their respective divisions in preparation for the annual national games.
DepEd-Cordillera has already visited the venue in Cebu City to make sure that the housing of the athletes and coaches is ready.
The training of the athletes will be up to the various schools division offices in partnership with the local government units.
“Kaya per school ang teams to make it easier for them to practice because we cannot call these athletes to come for training without their coaches,” Cariño said.
DepEd-Cordillera is abiding by the DepEd memo where teachers shall not be called in any school activities from June 1 to 30.
Cariño has lauded the LGUs for their consistent help in supporting the training of the student-athletes and coaches to prepare for the district, regional, up to the national sporting event.
She said it is only now that the region, as well as other regions, will field a full blast delegation of athletes for the Palaro, as the restrictions from the pandemic have relaxed.
Last year, the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association (Caraa) Fearless Highlanders went up one rung higher to ninth place at the Palarong Pambansa in Marikina City from its previous 10th place in 2019.
The Caraa athletes, with the taekwondo delegates contributing eight gold medals, raked in a total of 17 gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze medals at the close of the 2023 Palarong Pambansa.
Defending champion National Capital Region was the runaway champion with 214 medals, followed by Region VI Western Visayas as first runner-up with 149 medals, and the Region IV-A as se-cond runner-up with 161 medals.
