Pacquiao, Suarez named
Athletes of the Year
International
Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion Manny Pacquiao
and Bowling World Cup winner Christian Jan Suarez and have
been named 2003 Athletes
of the Year by the Philippine Sportswriters Association.
The PSA presented the award to the two at the Holiday Inn
Manila January 9. A southpaw from General Santos City, Pacquiao
clobbered Marco Antonio Barrera in a non-title fight on Nov.
15 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, to improve his
record to 38-2-1. He proved too much for the flamboyant and
highly touted Latin fighter, who never came close to doing
him any harm.
No title was at stake, but veteran sportsmen say boxing
aficionados all over the world have taken notice of Pacquiao’s
superb performance against a fighter who held the reputation
of being the most feared in the division.
The lone Filipino boxing champion was also voted co- Athlete
of the Year with Asian Games gold medal winner Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski
last year.
On the other hand, Suarez was deemed worthy of the award
for her triumph in the World Cup in Tegucigalpa, Honduras,
in October to become the second Filipino kegler to achieve
the feat after the legendary Paeng Nepomuceno in 1996.
Nepomuceno won his first World Cup in 1976, and two more
to etch his name on the Guinness Book of World Record. He
went on to break his own record by winning a
fourth title in 1996 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the only
one to do so.
A triple gold medalist in the 2001 Southeast Asian Games,
Suarez missed the cut to the quarterfinals in the 2002 World
Cup by a mere two pins but came through this time and defeated
Dutchman Marcel van den Bosch 2-0 in the final (205-202, 232-209).
The victory in October immediately made the 24-year old
Information Technology consultant a top favorite for the Athlete
of the Year award weeks before the balloting.
Three others, Liza Clutario, Liza del Rosario, and Cecilia
Yap, will be accorded the PSA President’s award. They
have clinched the women’s trio gold to become the first
Asians to win in the World Tenpin Bowling Championships in
September in Malaysia.
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