Donaire, Molina named 2007 top athletes

One shook the boxing world with a single mean punch, while the other emerged the best in a field featuring the finest in the Southeast Asian region.

Boxer Nonito Donaire Jr. and swimmer Miguel Molina did the country proud in the year just passed with their respective exploits done under the most trying times.

Donaire, 25, wrested the International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight crown by destroying the myth of invincibility surrounding previously unbeaten champion Vic Darchinyan in their world title fight in Connecticut, USA.

Not to be outdone, the 23-year-old Molina bagged the Best Male Athlete award of the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand and became the saving grace of a troubled Team Philippines’ campaign.

Together, the two, without doubt, served as the face of another remarkable season in Philippine sports, good enough reason for them to be named as the 2007 Athletes of the Year by the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA).

Bested by Donaire and Molina for the prestigious award handed out by the country’s oldest media organization were boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao, golfer Frankie Miñoza, pool idol Ronnie Alcano and young Grandmaster Wesley So.

The PSA Athlete of the Year honor will be the first for both Donaire and Molina.

“It was a hard decision considering that all the candidates were deserving. But in the end, it all boiled down between Nonito Donaire and Miguel Molina, whose daring exploits came at the unexpected time,” said PSA president Aldrin Cardona of the Tribune.  

The two will be honored in the San Miguel Corporation-PSA Annual Awards Night set Feb. 16 at the SM Mall of Asia.      

Pacquiao, Minñoza, Alcano and So however, are included among the honorees to be feted with major awards by the media group composed of sportswriters from the country’s national broadsheets and tabloids.

Already named major awardees in the event sponsored by Shakey’s, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), Accel and Raymundo’s Trophies and Sculptures (www.raymundonawards.com) are Mark Caguioa (pro) and Jason Castro (amateur) in basketball and jockey Patti Dilema and Es Twenty Six in horseracing.

 Meanwhile, the gold medal winners in the SEA Games lead the personalities and entities to be given citations in the same awards night to be broadcast live over DZSR Sports Radio 918 and can be seen through the internet by typing www.pbs.gov.ph by clicking the sportsradio icon.

Donaire stunned the boxing world in August last year by scoring a fifth round technical knockout of the 31-year-old Darchinyan, an Australian of Armenian descent, to win the 112-pound IBF belt.

Now based in Los Angeles but born in General Santos City, Donaire dominated the hard-hitting Darchinyan, one of the most fearsome punchers in boxing today, right from the opening round before completing the shocking win by connecting a solid counter left hook to the jaw that knocked the champion down to the canvass.

Four months after the sensational win, adjudged as the 2007 “Upset of the Year” and “Knockout of the Year” by the esteemed Ring Magazine, the so-called Bible of Boxing, Donaire returned to the ring and successfully defended his IBF belt with an eight round technical knockout of Mexican Luis Maldonado at the Foxwoods Resort Casino.

A week after Donaire’s title defense, Molina took center stage.

The University of California-Berkeley International Relations graduate took the SEA Games by storm with a four-gold romp at the pool of His Majesty the King’s 80th Birthday Anniversary Stadium on the way to being named the meet’s Best Male Athlete.

He topped the 400-m individual medley, the 200-m IM, the200-m breastroke and anchored the 4x100-m relay team composed of Ryan Arabejo, James Walsh and Daniel Coakley to become one of only two athletes to win four golds in the Thailand SEA Games.