Puerto Princesa City faltered in its bid to improve its Batang Pinoy 2019 performance as host to this year’s national youth games, finishing 27th overall which was a notch lower compared to its 26th place finish last year.
The host city’s athletes collected 7 gold, 14 silver, and 15 bronze or a total of 36 medals from the 7-day competitions which culminated Saturday, August 31.
City sports director Rocky Austria, however, said that he was pleased with the overall performance, stating the local athletes had to contend with limited resources compared to other delegations.
“Let’s give credit to our athletes, especially sa swimming team where most of our gold medals came from. Siyempre may room for improvement pa kaya inaayos natin ‘yong ating training program with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) para maganda ang maging training ng mga bata. ‘Yon ang ating direksyon sa ngayon”, Austria said.
Puerto Princesa tankers acquitted themselves in the swimming events, collecting five gold medals. The host also managed to win 1 gold from boxing and 1 from cycling.
Batang Pinoy, the main athletic program of the PSC, targets youth under 15-years-old to hold an annual finals competition lasting for a week. This year’s edition of the national games was participated in by 124 teams representing various cities and provinces from all over the country.
