It was an unprecedented victory for both the blue and red teams for jointly bagging this year's Championship award in the recently-concluded Computer Society of Filipinos Intl. (COMSOFIL) One-day 7TH IT Olympics held at the Riyadh International School basketball grounds recently. It was a unanimous decision made by the COMSOFIL's IT Olympic officials and technical committees declaring the two (2) teams as this year's overall champion based upon the tally of the overall final results. Recapping the overall breakdown of the various awards received by the 5 competing teams in the various categories – the Red team had accumulated the most highest number of awards carting away 5 Golds, 2 Silvers and 2 Bronze. Sharing victory with the Red team is the Blue team taking home 5 Golds, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze. Trailing for the second overall highest awards were the White team bagging 2 Golds, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze in its bucket, while the Orange team had posted a consistent record in the Silver awards category slashing away 5 Silvers with 1 Gold and 2 Bronze medals. The yellow team posted 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze medals. IT Olympic officials, technical staff, Board of Judges, guests, participants and sponsors converged at 8:00 a.m. at the Riyadh Intl. School (RIS) basketball grounds. The formal opening kicks-off with the parade of all participating teams led by its respective flag bearers VP for Membership Celso Ditalo (Philippine Flag) and BOT Edwin Lavin (Saudi Flag), followed by the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic Torch. It was preceded by presentation of the different Cluster banners and immediately followed by the banner raising competition. Ms. Susan Marzan led the Pambansang Awit, and the Solemn Invocation was led by this column writer. The opening remarks was delivered by COMSOFIL 2010 President Salvador “Buddy” S. Villalino. The Guest Speaker was introduced by VP for Finance Danie Cortez. The formal declaration and opening of the “7th IT Olympics” was officially opened by Consular Attache Sheila Hernandez-Solas from the Philippine Embassy. Consular Attache Solas, was the Guest of Honor and Speaker who represented His Excellency Ambassador Antonio P. Villamor who had an occasional emergency errands to attend to. Villamor in his Message, as read by Consul Solas congratulated all COMSOFIL officials for conceptualizing the “IT Olympics” and for continuously initiating the noble cause in uplifting the level of knowledge and technical know-how of our Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and fellow “kababayans” on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Villamor said in his message. Some 400-500 COMSOFIL students participated in the most celebrated event of the year the “IT Olympics”- showcasing the “cream of the crop” and the “best among the best minds” from among the various competing clusters. Among the various categories played during the competition were: PC Assembly and Advanced Trouble Shooting, Basic and Advanced Autocad, 3-D Max Modelling, Web Development (HTML), Computer Fundamentals, Spreahsheet (Excel), Basic and Advanced Photoshop, Networking I and II, Linux and Basic Digital Photography. All of the more than 400 participating players have been carefully divided and chosen to represent its respective clusters. After careful selection of all cluster team representatives, five (5) colorful teams emerged and competed for the various prestigious awards, these are Yellow, Orange, Bue, Red and White teams respectively. This year's “7th IT Olympics” annual celebration was supported and sponsored by Hi-Tech Computers, Symmetry-Genesis Middle East, and Medical World Polyclinic. Masters of Ceremonies were Toasmasters Danny Tenerefi and Pinky Amores. The event was attended by COMSOFIL Board of Trustees headed by Edwin Fontiveros, Adolfo Muga, Jr., Romwald Miranda, Edwin Lavin and Nomer Cenil. Also present during the implementation of the project were the 2010 Board of Directors and Executive Officers, Technical Support Staff and the invited Board of Judges from the Philippine Professional Organizations (PPO).
