This is my Fair Play column for SunStar Cebu’s April 27 2021 edition
More than a year after the pandemic forced it to close and to be used as a garrison of sorts for the police, the Cebu City Sports Center will be welcoming its patrons again early next month.
Imagine that. Runners, joggers and everyone else who used to flock to the CCSC, back.
I went there a couple of months ago and all I remember was seeing the once parched football field so green. A few weeks ago, I saw a photo of the CCSC pool, which looked more like a pond than a pool.
So the news of the CCSC opening the track oval is for me, a good one. A welcome one for a city that based on the latest tally has beaten Covid for the second time.
It’s a step into normalcy. That is, if we ever get back to the normal that was everything before 2020.
But though it’s a step toward normalcy, we all know everything isn’t normal. So there may have been a few who reacted to the guidelines requiring those who use the CCSC oval to wear face shields but I hope they’d comply.
In sports parlance, the CCSC is groping for form. And I can’t blame them. Just one photo of CCSC patrons jogging without any face masks or face shield will surely lead to online condemnation they’d be forced to close.
So yes, I hope those who will be using the CCSC oval on its first day of opening will be using face shields.
But joggers will sure look strange jogging around in face shields. I’m sure that’s true. And I’m sure, a week or two into its opening, if it would be proven that the face shields won’t be necessary, the guidelines will be reviewed.
At least, for now, I’m happy the CCSC is opening again because as we all know, it’s not only the joggers that benefit from its opening.
At its peak, the CCSC is an economy of its own. Joggers on the track, martial art students and instructors on the sidelines, a zumba class on the other end, badminton players on the other building and ambulant vendors just outside the gate who cater to everyone.
Would I be jogging at the CCSC? No. I haven’t run at the Abellana oval in close to four years. But I hope May 3 is the first step on a long road that leads to thousands back at Abellana, and not just the oval.