It would have been the 25th year of the University Games – the national inter-collegiate games founded in Bacolod City – last year.
The Silver Anniversary edition of the games, like other-school-based sports competitions was put on hold because of the coronavirus crisis.
“Because of COVID-19, we failed to meet last year and discuss the prospects of the games,” said Roger Banzuela, President of the national competition which started at the University of St. La Salle in 1996.
And again, this year, we still cannot meet to make our plans, he added, and that means we will have to shelve the 2021 staging, too.
Unigames has been held annually late in October, during the semestral break of tertiary schools.
As many as 60 universities and colleges had participated in it.
Various universities in Luzon and the Visayas have hosted the games with the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City as its home in 2019.
The competition relies mostly on corporate sponsors and the Philippines Sports Commission for its funds. Roxas City has offered to host the next Unigames, he added.
Short of saying that the games will no longer be held, Banzuela said, we just have to accept the fact that the future is uncertain.
He was, however, quick to add, “We’ll just have to wait and see.” – AVDC
