BY CARLA KRISTINE VIA/UM Intern
DAVAO City’s Sports Development Division opened more opportunities for young athletes through its ongoing Aktibo Dabawenyo summer sports clinic program, which kicked off last April and is expected to conclude in May.
The Aktibo Dabawenyo program gathers athletes ages 8-15 for a sports clinic with four events like judo, futsal, kurash, and water sports (kayak, stand-up paddleboarding, and dragon boat), to learn new skills under the city’s partner sports associations and clubs.
It is also an avenue for the SDD to not just train young athletes in the sports, but also to spot talented and potential athletes that may represent the city in regional, national, and international events.
“The [sports] clinic that we are providing is a training for them (young athlete participants). We don’t want to just introduce them to the sports, we want to train them so that, at least, we can identify those potential and talented athletes,” said Aktibo Dabawenyo’s program in-charge Irene Lumanas.
“This is a great avenue for our youth to be engaged in sports to avoid sedentary activities, considering it’s the summer [season],” she added.
Lumanas also said that despite recording some drop-outs from the summer clinic, a notable number of participants are seeing it through.
The four events for this year’s sports clinic were determined based on last year’s Batang Pinoy events, which were observed needing support from the city.
The program is in full swing with 5 out of 15 remaining judo sessions, 8 remaining sessions in 6 barangay futsal clinics, and 6 remaining sessions for the water-sports events.
Aside from the summer sports clinic, Aktibo Dabawenyo also held a friendship game with their 4 partner schools last March, and will be preparing for the School for Sports program from June to October of this year.
