The Metropolitan area received this Thursday the champion trophy of the first Christmas Sports Festival 2021, organized by the Ministry of Sports, after being the most outstanding region of this competition that brought together more than 71,000 athletes from the 158 municipalities of the country.
In the Festival four team sports were competed, basketball in its 5×5 and 3×3 modalities in its two branches; in men’s children’s baseball; in women’s volleyball (sub-16) and in men’s and women’s open category softball.
In volleyball, the Metropolitana won the final against the Valdesia region; In women’s 5×5 basketball, the Metro also triumphed over Valdesia and in the men’s 5×5 they beat the Cibao Central zone.
In the men’s 3×3, the Northeast region beat the Metro and in the women’s, Valdesia equally had the Metro.
In men’s softball, Cibao Central defeated El Valle and in women’s Enriquillo took the title by beating the East region. In baseball, Cibao Central defeated the Metro.
During the entire Festival, which went through four phases (municipal, provincial, regional and national), 52 million pesos were distributed.
The Festival was a total success
“The Festival was a success and we are going to repeat it for 2022,” said Sports Minister Francisco Camacho, who led the award together with the Festival’s general director, Miguel Camacho, in the Taekwondo Pavilion of the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center.
Also present were the coordinator of the regional and provincial directors, the vice ministers Juan Vila, Kennedy Vargas and Leopoldo Portes, as well as Heyda JoaquÃn, coordinator of the regional directors.
Likewise, the technical director of the ministry, Neftalà Ventura; the director of Parni, José Paulino, and several provincial, municipal and department directors of Miderec.
“The year 2021 has been very good for sports, thanks to the support of President Luis Abinader,” said Miguel Camacho. “It is enough to see the results of the Tokyo Olympics, where we are ahead of major countries,” he added.
In that direction, he highlighted the results of the first Youth Pan American Games, in Cali, Colombia. In both cases, he valued that, for the first time in a long time, the two competitions were held “with financial support delivered well in advance.”
He referred to the 213 million pesos that Minister Camacho gave to the Olympic Committee for the organization of the Dominican delegation “and now the lid has been put on the knob with the Christmas Sports Festival,” said Miguel Camacho, who highlighted the work done by the regional and provincial directors since in just weeks “we impacted the 158 municipalities simultaneously.”
The Festival director highlighted the work of the Technical Directorate of Miderec, the department directed by Ventura, as well as JoaquÃn, Paulino, transportation, accommodation, the Economic Dining Rooms, the CAASD, the Dominican Municipal League; to the General Directorate of Strategic and Special Projects of the Presidency, headed by Minister José (Neney) Cabrera, and to the Albergue OlÃmpico.
“The idea of ​​President Abinader with respect to sport is that we bring it closer to the people,” said Camacho, who highlighted the work carried out by the regional and provincial directors.
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