Young athletes from schools in Olongapo City and Zambales compete in the 1st Subic Bay Summer Sports Summit held at the Boardwalk Park. Photo by Malou Dungog
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – With the successful staging of the 1st Subic Bay Summer Sports Summit over the weekend, organizers are now planning a bigger sports festival here next year to sustain the growing enthusiasm of local athletes to compete and excel in the sporting world.
Hundreds of participants, mostly students from local schools, joined the three-day sports summit held from Friday to Sunday at the famous Boardwalk Park here.
The event was organized by the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce (SBFCC) and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), in partnership with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA-Olongapo City) and the Subic Lighthouse Marina Resort.
Eight local teams competed in various sports events like beach volleyball, beach football, open sea swimming competition, sand castle building, and 3-kilometer and 5-kilometer fun runs.
YMCA-Olongapo president and event organizer Jun Nobles III said that because of the encouraging turnout, organizers are thinking of inviting participants from schools in the whole of Central Luzon for the sports summit next year.
Plans are also afoot to add more sports events, including Laro ng Lahi, Nobles said.
SBFCC president Danny Piano said the sports summit was conceptualized to help promote the Subic Bay Freeport as a destination for sporting and adventure events, and develop local athletes and sports teams.
“While helping build up Subic’s image as an ideal destination for all types of sports events, we also hope to develop a team that would represent our community in the sporting world,” Piano said.
Aside from creating a venue for sports development, the Subic summer sports summit also helped raise funds for SBFCC’s community program and YMCA’s mini-library project.
Nobles said the mini-library will be open to students and sports enthusiasts who may want to do their school research assignments after practicing their favorite sports.
Meanwhile, event coordinator Argee Gomez stressed that the sports summit also served as a way for participants and their families and friends to better appreciate Subic’s natural environment and great outdoors.
“The very clean, cool and safe environment in the Subic Freeport is probably the reason why more and more sports events are being organized and held here every year,” Gomez said.
He noted that local and international events, like the Asian Duathlon Championships, Subic Adventure Race, Bike Festival Asia, and SMART Subic International Marathon, among others, are regularly held here.
Last week, the Triathlon Association of the Philippines (TRAP) conducted the 18th International Triathlon Union-K-Swiss Subic Bay International Triathlon (SUBIT) here and drew the participation of 732 athletes from 19 countries, “a big improvement compared to the 670 total in 2010,” said TRAP president Tom Carrasco Jr.
Carrasco said they are now planning to launch a bigger and better SUBIT next year also because of the huge turnout.
On May 21-23, meanwhile, hundreds of cyclists will meet up in Subic for the second leg of the Pilipinas Cycling League’s “Immuvit Race Against Time Series 2011.”
