7 nominated for PSA top awards

A world boxing champion, four international title holders and three Asian Games gold medalists have been nominated for the 2002 PSA Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year honors for the PSA Annual Awards set Jan. 10 at the Holiday Inn Manila.

Named for the Top Male Athlete Award are world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, the bowling pair of Paeng Nepomuceno and RJ Bautista and billiards champions Francisco "Django" Bustamante and Efren "Bata" Reyes. The nominees for the Top Female Athlete Award are equestrienne Mikee Cojuangco, bowler Liza del Rosario and junior golfer Dottie Ardina.

PSA president Roberto Cuevas said the association’s regular members would select the top male and female awardees in secret balloting this week.

President Arroyo has been invited to be the guest of honor and speaker during the Awards Night.

Pacquiao retained the International Boxing Federation super bantamweight title in his third title defense against Thai challenger Fahprakorb Rakkiat-Gym last October.

In a devastating display of power, Pacquiao decked the Thai challenger thrice to score a knockdown in 2:46 of the first round and improve his record to 35-2-1, with 26 knockouts.

Nepomuceno, the four-time World Cup champion, won his first-ever gold medal in the Asian Games in partnership with Filipino RJ Bautista in the bowling doubles.

Bustamante, in partnership with Antonio Lining, won the gold in the 9-ball doubles, his only event in the Busan Asian Games. He won the 2002 Japan Open, and in a span of two weeks in November annexed two more titles also in Japan.

He defeated Player of the Year Ralf Souquet of Germany, 7-5, 6-3, to win the IBC 2002 Tokyo 9-ball Open in Tokyo after beating compatriot Efren "Bata" Reyes in the semis.

He went on to annex the 35th All-Japan Championship, beating Finland’s Mikka Immonen, 11-8, in the finals also in Tokyo.

Reyes, bronze medalist in the 8-ball competition in the Busan Asian Games, retained his title in the Warsaw 8-ball championships in Poland and was losing finalist to Souquet in the World Pool Masters in England.

Cojuangco, a nursing mother, won the country’s first equestrian gold in the Asian Games with a superb showing against world-class competition in Busan, South Korea.

Riding Rustic Rouge and carrying just a slim chance of winning the gold, the stout-hearted Mikee, 28, who gave birth last December, nailed down the showjumping gold over a fancied South Korean rival to become Asia’s best in the sport.

Mikee was also member of the RP team that won the silver in the showjumping team competition.

Del Rosario, the 2001 World Cup runner-up, won the gold medal in the singles and All Events of the 17th Asian Tenpin Bowling championships over entries from 22 countries in Asia at the SCAA Bowling Center in Hong Kong last July.

A month earlier, she was a finalist in the third leg of the CGU Asian Bowling Tour held in Manila.

Ardina, 8, ended the Philippines’ three-year drought in the Callaway Junior World golf championships by winning the Class E division in record fashion — with a nine-stroke victory — in July in San Diego, California.

An ace in the sixth hole spurred her to a final round total of two-over 56 for a 54-hole aggregate of 175 in the competition, which assembled over 600 entries from around the world.

The PSA Annual Awards is sponsored by Red Bull, San Miguel Corp., Samsung, Philippine Sports Commission and Photokina and supported by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp.