Nine squads are aiming to bring home the overall championship in the elementary and secondary levels of the revived Negros Occidental Track and Field Association Age-Group Athletics Competition that takes centerstage today at the Escalante Central School Oval in Escalante City.

Trinity Christian School, Bacolod Tay Tung High School, Himamaylan City, ATLETA, and Escalante City-A and B are vying for the elementary boys' crown, while squads jousting for the elementary girls' title are TCS, Tay Tung, Escalante City-A and B, Silay City and ATLETA.

Athletes from Trinity, BTTHS, Silay City-A and B, Victorias City, Himamaylan City, ATLETA and Escalante City are eyeing championships in the secondary boys and girls' divisions.

The elementary boys and girls' competitors are eyeing gold medals in the 100-meter sprint, 200-m, 400-m, 800-m, 1,500-m, 4x100-m relay, 4x400-m relay, long jump, triple jump, discus throw and shot put.

The athletes in the secondary boys and girls' hostilities will be vying for top honors in the 100-m, 200-m, 400-m, 800-m, 1,500-m, 3,000-m, 4x100-m relay, 4x400-m relay, long jump, triple jump, discus throw and shot put. The secondary boys' participants also hope to post golden finishes in the 5,000-m race.

NOTAFA president Roger Banzuela said there are only few participating squads in the hostilities because each team will shoulder its own fare expenses going to Escalante.

NOTAFA is reviving the meet because it seems that athletics has been deteriorating in Negros and the province have fallen behind Iloilo in the collegiate level, he said.

The Escalante City local government, headed by Mayor Santiago Barcelona, sponsors the revival of the event, he added.

Escalante is the first leg of the revived athletics competitions and the staging of the succeeding legs will depend if there will be sponsors willing to fund the event, he said.

NOTAFA stopped organizing the meet in 2003 when the Negros Occidental Cultural and Sports Foundation, which used to shoulder the expenses of the event, did not have any budget left, he added. *CIT

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