By CALVIN CORDIVA

CEBU CITY—As expected, the National Capital Region (NCR) emerged as the overall champion once again. It was not even close.

After a week-long intense competition, the 2024 Palarong Pambansa finally came to a close on Tuesday, July 16, with the Big City taking the overall crown by harvesting 238 of the 509 medals at stake.

NCR hauled in 98 golds, 66 silvers, and 74 bronzes. Its secondary athletes did the heavy damage after they raked in 64 golds, 48 silvers, and 49 bronzes. NCR’s elementary athletes finished with 34 golds, 18 silvers, and 25 bronzes.

Region 4-A wound up second with 57 golds, 51 silvers, and 53 bronzes. Finishing third was Region 6, which harvested 56 golds, 41 silvers, and 41 bronzes.

Region 11 took the fourth spot with 32 golds, 25 silvers, and 35 bronzes. Host region Central Visayas duplicated its fifth-place finish in last year’s Palaro by collecting 29 golds, 42 silvers, and 39 bronzes.

Taking the sixth spot was Region 3 with 25 golds, 37 silvers, and 45 bronzes while Region 8 ranked seventh with 18 golds, 14 silvers, and 22 bronzes. Landing at eight spot was Region 12 17-23-31 (g-s-b) tally. Completing the top 15 were Region 10 (14-27-43), Region 5 (14-15-20), Region 9 (12-7-16), Region 9 (12-7-16), Region 13 (11-13-24), Cordillera Administrative Region (11-8-18), Region 2 (7-15-22), and Region 1 (5-14-10).

Region 4-B was at 16th spot with a 2-6-9 tally followed by Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which finished with 2 golds, 1 silver, and 4 bronzes.

The National Academy of Sports (NAS) and the Philippine Schools Overseas (POS) had a lackluster debut in the Palaro. NAS got one gold, five silvers, and two bronzes while POS finished dead-last with only a bronze to show.

SUCCESSFUL HOSTING

Meanwhile, the Department of Education (DepEd) and Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) described the staging of this year’s Palaro a resounding success.

DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas said the venue support management team played a huge role in the smooth conduct of the games.

“The operations, the games management, were  made smoother because for the first time that we had a venue support management. Overall, the venues were excellent. We owed this to our venue sponsors particularly the private sector who lent their venues and gave their support to the hosting of Cebu City,” said Bringas.

Bringas also credited tournament officials for the success of the event.

“The tournament officials have been excellent. We did not see any major functions of the jury of appeals unlike in the past. If there’s one committee that we don’t want to be activated during the games is the jury of appeals where protests of the games will be lodged. We did not have major issues to activate our jury of appeals,” Bringas added.

Bringas also lauded the city government of Cebu for the successful hosting.

“We would like to thank Cebu City. I am so glad that the city exceeded my expectations,” said Bringas.

Ilocos Norte will be hosting next year’s Palaro.

Pages said the city was able to show that it has venues capable of hosting big events like the Palaro.

“For the tournament directors, the conclusion was done very, very well. Our playing venues would reach international, SEA Games standards,” said Pages.

Pages said that the most important thing was the athletes were able to showcase their skills during the week-long competition.

“Our hope is that the 12,000 plus athletes will leave Cebu with tremendous memories of Cebu and the Palaro and we hope that one of them will become a Olympians,” said Pages.

Pages also confirmed that the oval of the Cebu City Sports Center did not meet the standard 400-meter measurement.

“As promised, we hired a third-party surveyor, the Mendel Surveying Solutions. This was both agreed by DepEd and Cebu City so that we will have an independent analysis and get to the bottom,” said Pages.

Pages said the average discrepancy of the weight lanes is 0.88 meters.

“This is not a result of the oval not being standard. This is a direct result of the mistake in the lining. The oval itself is standard but it's the lining,” Pages said.

According to the revalidation, Lane 1 is short by 1.5 meters while Lanes 2, 3 and 4 are short by 0.79 meters. Lanes 5, 6, 7, and 8 are short by 0.76, 0.75, 0.73, and 0.96 meters, respectively.

“Unfortunately, as explained by Jeanette Obiena (technical consultant for Palarong Pambansa), if you are one centimeter short, that's still short and we admit that it's short,” Pages said.

As a result of the oval being short of measurement, records that were made in the 200 meters and farther will not be recognized.

Bringas also clarified the participation of the technical officials who are members of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association in the Palaro.

“Patafa is not in any way engaged with the Palarong Pambansa. The Palaro is governed by its own board and Parafa has no engagement whatsoever with Palaro. They are members of Patafa but they are engaged in Palarong Pambansa as private individuals,” said Bringas.

Records made in the Palaro have also no bearing on other competitions, said Bringas.

“Records of Palaro stay with Palaro. They are not records of Patafa or any records of any other athletics organization or international organizations. These are only for Palaro. Whatever records are broken in the Palarong Pambansa they are Palarong Pambansa records and not Patafa records or World Athletics records,” Bringas said.