Miguel Tabuena and Wolen Superal emerged as hands-down choices for the prestigious award on the strength of their remarkable exploits in international competitions in the year about to end.
The award is named after Antonio M. Siddayao, the acknowledged dean of local sportswriters who died a few years ago.
Tabuena won the 9-10 year division of the fourth UBC Thailand International Junior championship in May and struck again two months later by topping the same class in the annual Chris Riley Junior championship in San Diego, California.
Like Tabuena, Superal also hit it big. In July, he coasted to a wire-to-wire triumph in the 11-12 years division of the Callaway Junior World tournament in San Diego, California.
And Superal won it in grand style, posting a 54-hole aggregate of 21-under-par 201 that went down as the new junior world record. It’s better than the 17 under par set by another Filipino, Carito Villaroman, in winning the boys‚ 15-17 class in 1986.
So the duo joined chesser Wesley So (2004) and the Bacolod Girls softball team (2003) in the short but great list of winners of the Siddayao awards given to young players withh a lot of promise.
High on the roster of awardees is Team Philippines, which the 100-member, 56-year-old association unanimously chose as its Athlete of the Year for winning the overall title in the Southeast Asian Games for the first time since joining the meet in 1977.
Gold medalists in the 23rd edition of the SEA Games will be honored along with the other personalities, sponsors and entities who did their share in making 2005 a memorable year in local sports.
The sportswriters have yet to name the winner of the jockey of the year award.
Three candidates — many-time PSA awardee Patti Dilema, Jessie Guce and Jonathan Hernandez — are locked in a close fight for the award.
The list of awardees follows:
Athletes of the Year — Team Philippines
Major awardees — Alex Pagulayan (billiards), Manny Pacquiao (pro boxing), Arwind Santos (amateur basketball), Eric Menk (pro basketball), Jennifer Rosales (women’s golf), Juvic Pagunsan (amateur golf), Harry Tanamor (amateur boxing), Maristela Torres (athletics), Amaya Paz (archery), Miguel Molina (swimming), Sheila Mae Perez (diving), Benjamin Tolentino (rowing), John Baylon (judo), Cecil Mamiit (tennis), Suhod Hakim, (traditional boat racing), Ruperto Aabijon (TBR), Manuel Maya (TBR), Junray Dayumad (TBR), Ricky Sardena (TBR), Rene Catalan (wushu).