Scribes to honor year’s best athletes

Athletes who gave the country proud moments in 2003 will be feted during the PSA (Philippine Sportswriters Association) Annual Awards Night on Jan. 9 at the Manila Pavilion.

World boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and World Cup bowling titlist Christian Jan (CJ) Suarez will lead a distinguished group of athletes to be honored in simple but fitting rites by the men and women of local sports writing.

No less than President Arroyo and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo have been invited to grace the rites and spend a few hours with the honorees, who did well here and abroad in the year about to end.

Pacquiao and Suarez also found themselves strong candidates for the much-coveted Athlete of the Year award, thanks to the magnitude of their victories, which the nation wanted like crazy.

Two days ago in faraway San Antonio, Texas, the 24-year-old Pacquiao rewarded his countrymen with something to cheer for when he stopped Mexico’s Marco Antonio Barrera in the 11th round of their 12-round non-title bout.

And Suarez bested top bowlers from 45 other countries to win the Bowling World Cup in a scintillating triumph that recalled similar conquest by his boyhood idol, Paeng Nepomuceno.

The 85-member association will choose the Athlete of the Year awardee in a secret voting early next month.

Being a Southeast Asian Games year, the bulk of awardees will most likely come from standouts in the SEAG meet next month in Vietnam, where the Philippines is expected to produce at least 40 gold medalists.

Others who did the country proud in international front, among them Asian Chess Zonals champ Ronald Dableo and the team of Liza Clutario, Liza del Rosario and Cecille Yap which won the trios event in the World FIQ in Kuala Lumpur, will also be honored.

And so are the athletes who performed well locally, among them jockey Patricio Dilema, and cycling champion Arnel Querimit, and officials who stood tall on the conference table like newly-elected International Bowling Federation president Steve Hontiveros.

"We gather once again on Jan. 9 to accord appropriate honors for our outstanding athletes who did us proud," said PSA president Bert Cuevas of the Manila Standard.

"This is our only way to say thank you to them for their sacrifices to excel in their respective field. I hope our countrymen, led by our No. 1 sports patron, President Arroyo, share our feelings," Cuevas added.

Last year, the sportswriters bestowed on Pacquiao and equestrienne Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski the Sportsman of the Year and Sportswoman of the Year awards following their success in their respective sports.

In a victory needed so desperately by the embattled Team Philippines, Cojuangco-Jaworski pulled off an amazing triumph in equestrian on the penultimate day of the Busan Asian Games for RP’s third gold medal overall in the meet.

Cuevas said posthumous awards will also be given to Olympic boxer Renato Fortaleza and Robert Cheng, a businessman who spent a fortune bankrolling the local tournament for caddies here.

For the 10th straight year, the Awards Night will be sponsored by Red Bull and Agfa Colors.