The President Elpidio Quirino Stadium, simply known as the Quirino Stadium is a sports facility in the town of

Bantay Bantay, officially the Municipality of Bantay ( ilo, Ili ti Bantay; fil, Bayan ng Bantay), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 37,118 people. It is situated ...

Ilocos Sur Ilocos Sur, officially the Province of Ilocos Sur ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ilocos Sur; tl, Lalawigan ng Ilocos Sur), is a province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the capital o ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

History

The Quirino Stadium was inaugurated in 1953 by then President

Elpidio Quirino Elpidio Rivera Quirino (born Elpidio Quirino y Rivera; ; November 16, 1890 – February 29, 1956) was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the sixth president of the Philippines from 1948 to 1953. A lawyer by profession, Quirino enter ...

, the namesake of the sports venue and hosted the 6th

Palarong Pambansa The Palarong Pambansa (Filipino language, Filipino for "National Games") is an annual multi-sport event involving student-athletes from 17 regions of the Philippines. The event, started in 1948, is organized and governed by the Department of Ed ...

, a national multi-sport event for students. The sports facility underwent an Ilocos Sur government-funded rehabilitation from February 2014 to April 2016 Firmbuilders, Inc. was involved in the rehabilitation of the sports facility. The Quirino Stadium had a re-inauguration on April 30, 2016. The rehabilitation was done as part of Ilocos Sur's unsuccessful bid to host the 2017 edition of the Palarong Pambansa though the facility later became part of the province's successful bid for the 2018 edition of the games. A historical marker at the stadium was unveiled on February 2, 2018 to commemorate the bicentennial foundation anniversary of the province of

Facilities

Quirino Stadium Track Oval and Football Field

Prior to the Quirino Stadium's rehabilitation which completed in April 2016, the sports facility used to be unadorned. The stadium's blue rubberized athletics track, basketball and lawn tennis courts, as well as its artificial grass football pitch were installed as part of the 2016 renovations. The stadium has a seating capacity of 5,000 but it can hold as much as 7,000 people. A beach volleyball court is being installed inside the stadium. A covered court for indoor sports, a swimming pool and billeting quarters were also planned to be built in a later date.

Events

Athletics

The Quirino Stadium has also hosted the Region 1 Athletic Association meet, an athletics tournament for sportspeople from the Ilocos Region. It hosted the regional tournament in 2017.

Multi-sport

The Palarong Pambansa, a national students' games, has been hosted at the Quirino Stadium when the venue was inaugurated in 1953. The stadium will host events of the 2018 edition of the games. The 2017 edition of the

Batang Pinoy The Philippine Youth Games – Batang Pinoy or simply Batang Pinoy () is the national youth sports competition of the Philippines for athletes under 15 years old. Unlike the Palarong Pambansa a competition for student athletes, the Batang Pinoy a ...

tournament has also been hosted in the stadium.

Football

The Quirino Stadium hosted the first international match of the

Philippine national football team The Philippines national football team (Filipino/ tl, Pambansang koponan ng futbol ng Pilipinas, lit=) represents the Philippines in international football, governed by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) and has been playing internatio ...

in Northern Luzon against Australian club Perth Glory FC. The match was attended by 6,000 people on June 26, 2016 ended in a 0–2 defeat for the Philippine national side.

Ilocos United F.C. The Ilocos United Football Club was a Filipino Association football, football team based in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. The team played in the 2017 Philippines Football League, inaugural season of the Philippines Football League (PFL), the highest level o ...

used the stadium as their home venue during the inaugural season of the Philippines Football League in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quirino Stadium Athletics (track and field) venues in the Philippines Football venues in the Philippines Buildings and structures in Ilocos Sur 1953 establishments in the Philippines Sports venues completed in 1953