The non-staging of some sports events in the Third District Area Meet may have denied Negros Occidental the luxury of fielding the strongest team possible for the Western Visayas Private Schools Athletic Association Meet scheduled next week in Bacolod City.

Felipe Dumancas, the Negros Occidental Physical Education and School Sports supervisor, yesterday told the DAILY STAR that Area III players selected for the elementary baseball and sepak takraw squads have been stricken off the rosters because they may be disqualified based on a rule that states athletes should compete in a "lower meet" to be eligible for higher meets like the Regional Palaro.

But the Department of Education executive expressed optimism that the Negros Occidental contingent will be able to retain the elementary and secondary crowns, despite the absence of the Area III athletes. Instead of holding the traditional multi-event meet, Area III only staged "challenge matches", in the event that another squad wanted to dispute the title against the defending champion. If there were no teams that challenged the reigning champion, the title-holder was automatically fielded in the Provincial Meet.

Silay was supposed to host the Area III athletic meet last year. But Silay City administrator Rodney Rubica said the mayors of the cities and municipalities agreed not to hold the competitions because of lack of logistics.

A Negrense coach, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said officials of the Iloilo delegation are closely watching the moves of the Negros contingent regarding the Area III athletes.

"They (Iloilo) may file protests against our athletes because of that technicality," the mentor said.

Dumancas said officials of the Negros contingent are anticipating the actions that may be taken by Iloilo.

Dumancas said Negros still has a formidable team for the six-province regional Palaro, especially in medal-rich athletics.

Also fielding entries in the Feb. 19-24 competition are Capiz, Aklan, Antique and Guimaras. Eighteen sports disciplines have been lined up for the meet with majority of the events to be staged at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Barangay Mansilingan.

Athletics and swimming will be held at the Panaad, along with arnis, boxing, softball, taekwondo and secondary lawn tennis. The venue for archery and secondary basketball will be St. Benilde School.

Volleyball events will be staged at the University of St. La Salle just like elementary lawn tennis. The badminton hostilities will be held at the Pohang Badminton Court, while baseball is set at Bacolod City National High School. Gymnastics will be held at the Bacolod Arts Center inside BCNHS. The Corazon Montelibano Elementary School will be home to the sipa and sepak takraw tournaments, while West Negros College will host chess.

One of the more popular sports of the meet, football will be held at the Paglaum Sports Complex, while elementary basketball is set at the Negros Occidental Multi-Purpose and Activity Center. Secondary table tennis is set at the Lopue's Table Tennis Association facility inside Lopue's San Sebastian, even as the elementary event will be held at the Negros Occidental Teachers Federation center. *CPT

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