Volleyball: Imus opens first Mayor's Cup with 7 teams
February 8, 2010 1:11 am
By Lily O Ramos
MANILA, Feb. 7 – In a bid to become a venue of a nationwide competition in volleyball, the local government of Imus, Cavite formally opened on Sunday its first Mayor's Cup Volleyball Open Invitational Championships at the Imus Town Plaza.
Mayor Manny Maliksi, Vice Mayor Mandy Ilano and their colleagues, including Imus Sports Council (ISC) officer-in-charge Rommel Camerino and Region 4-A director of the Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) provided inspiration and distributed certificates of attendance to the seven teams that gathered at the Imus Town Plaza.
The seven squads are from the Philippine Air Force (PAF), Philippine Army (PA), Imus, General Trias, the Altas of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), University of Perpetual Help of Molino and UPH of Las Pinas.
A total cash of P28,000 will be up for grabs with the crown holder pocketing P10,000, the runner-up, P8,000, the third, P6,000.
Imus is also scheduled to be a recipient of the PBA's Outreach in Sports program on Monday with PBA Commissioner Renauld "Sonny" Barrios as special guest.
Everyone agreed that PAF and PA are the strongest title contenders of the month-long tournament that would produce a champion by February 28 but no one is discounting the threat coming from the young but power-packed Imus tossers.
Maliksi said Imusenos are determined to join mainstream sports so the best thing for them to do is to start in volleyball where they have the height, bulk, youth and talent to excel.
"We're eyeing at the possibility of expanding into basketball since our athletes are growing tall, heftier and more skillful and naturally talented in the sport which Filipinos are so fond of. Soon, we'll cut our teeth into other sports like taekwondo and martial arts, swimming, chess and ballroom dancing," he added.
Camerino said he has observed through the years that Cavite has produced quality athletes in the above-mentioned sports.
"Right now, we're very proud of world-famous 16-year-old chess prodigy, Wesley So, and we remember former scoring champ Nano Tolentino and PBA journeyman Abe King quite well. Naturally, we're campaigning to become a place where everyone can gather and play games without fear or favor." (PNA) scs/LOR
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