Narra bagged the overall crown in the recent Provincial Meet held in Bataraza town, November 10-15.
Out of 22 competing teams from different municipalities in Palawan, the Narra delegation clinched the championship in both elementary and secondary levels and was concluded as the overall champion.
In elementary level, Narra gathered 27 gold, 29 silver and 25 bronze medals followed by Coron with 20 gold, 17 silver, 13 bronze; next is Roxas with 18 gold, 11 silver, and 9 bronze; following Roxas, Bataraza earned 15 gold, 14 silver, and 15 bronze; Brooke’s Point placed 4th with 10 gold, 17 silver and 20 bronze and Linapacan with 10 gold, 6 silver and bronze medals.
Meanwhile, at the secondary level, Narra also got the top spot with 42 gold, 28 silver, and 31 bronze. Next is Bataraza with 31 gold, 23 silver, and 28 bronze; followed by Quezon garnering 20 gold, 14 silver, and 15 bronze. Next to Quezon is San Vicente with 19 gold, 18 silver, and 20 bronze. Coron following San Vicente got 19 gold, 16 silver, and 15 bronze; next is Brooke’s Point with 14 gold, 26 silver, and 35 bronze medals.
Wrapping the results, Narra was announced overall champion with 69 gold, 57 silver and 56 bronze medals followed by the Bataraza with 46 gold, 37 silver, and 43 bronze; and Coron with 39 gold, 33 silver, and 28 bronze medals.
Delegation head Edna Cabuhat told Palawan News that they were able to achieve the championship because of the cooperation and support of the local government of Narra and the Department of Education (DepEd).
“Ang support ng munisipyo sa amin ay napakalakas and in DepEd Narra, we have project STRONG which strengthens individual competition through monthly competition,” Cabuhat said.
She said that the DepEd in Narra wrote a proposal and passed it to the mayor and the Sangguniang Bayan who supported it and allocated funds for Project STRONG. Aside from that, the government also has a grassroots program that supports students who are just beginning to be interested in sports.
Cabuhat said that they did not see other challenges aside from some of the athletes getting sick because of the weather conditions.
“For the challenges, ang incident lang namin ay marami po kaming nagka-sakit maybe because ‘yong climate condition medyo nabigla ‘yong mga bata. Pero hindi lang naman sa Narra delegation ‘yong nagka-sakit, I heard maraming delegation ang nagka-sakit dahil sa panahon pero hindi namin ‘yong kinonsider talaga,” she said.
She also mentioned that Narra can be considered sports capital in terms of the gold and achievements like being champion for four consecutive years.
She also shared that the sports they think they need to focus on are swimming because of the lack of swimming facilities in Narra.
“Unang una is ‘yong swimming because in Narra, we have no swimming pool. Meron kaming swimming pool doon pero kailangan namin magbayad. Kailangan magbayad ng mga atleta para makapag-training sa swimming, so ‘yon ang nakikita naming palakasin. Pero sabi sa munisipyo they are finding ways na magkaroon ng swimming pool sa Narra,” she said.
Cabuhat also expressed her gratitude to everyone’s support in their journey to gold.
“We are thankful ang grateful to God of course for always guiding us, our athletes, our officials sa ganitong competition. I really appreciate the efforts of all the coaches, assistant coaches, trainers, the officials, the mess supervisor and the kitchen personnel. And we really appreciate the two industrious sports officer of Narra sir Manuel Cruzat and sir Bernardo Delos Reyes sila talaga yong nag-aasikaso tumitingin sa lahat para mapagaling ang mga atletang Narranon,” she said.
