CLARK FREEPORT – The Fontana Leisure Park here is launching this Sunday its first Fontana Hotspring Leisure Sports Festival in its bid to support the thrust of the state-firm Clark Development Corp. to make sports a major lure for tourists in this freeport.
In a press briefing here, sports festival organizer Jovy Mamanwal said the festival will host basketball, swimming, Frisbee, tennis, volleyball, fun runs and even cheer dancing.
“This will be the first such sports festival which Fontana wants to do every year, each year making it more national in scope. Next year, we want this to be a full blown national sports event,” Mamanwal said.
Except for the three, five and ten-kilometer fun runs, the rest of the sports events would be by invitation, he said.
He said known coaches have been invited to supervise the games, including Bernie Alindogan for swimming, Homer Fabian for Frisbee, Bernardo Ocampo for basketball, and Domingo Lacuesta for volleyball.
Mamanwal said the fun runs are open to the public who are advised to register as early as 5:30 a.m. on Sunday at the Fontana estate, as the sprints would start at 7 a.m. within Clark. Fee of P150 would be required of runners for the three-kilometer stretch, P250 for the five kilometers and P350 for the 10 kilometers.
Fontana marketing manager Alvin Wong said the Olympic sized pool of his resort would be used for the swimming events.
The other sports events are by invitation. Tennis has been reserved for “elders” while the other events are to be participated in by young folk, Mamanwal said.
Already, various universities and other schools in Central Luzon have confirmed their participation in the sports events, he said.
Winners are to be awarded special Fontana medals, while all participants would be given certificates, Wong added.
