Pacquiao nominated for brain-of-year international award

GUANGZHOU, China - Filipino boxing sensation Manny Pacquiao has made a high-profile list of personalities nominated for the 2010 Brain of the Year award here.

Pacquiao, the reigning world boxing pound-for-pound champion who is also lawmaker, peacemaker and philanthropist, made the roster that includes former South African President Nelson Mandela and former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew.

Pacquiao, Mandela and Lee lead the list of nominees for the search coinciding with the ongoing 19th World Memory Championships at the Mount River Resort Hotel here.

Also in the list are tennis king Roger Federer, famed writer JK Rowling, Chinese memory champion Wang Feng, eight-time World Memory champion Dominic O’Brien, chess grandmasters Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, director James Cameron, Dame Evelyn of Scotland, Jane Goodall and Prof. Stephen Hawking of UK, Lee Chang-Ho of South Korea, Prof. Michio Kaku of the United States, Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia, and Sebastian Vettel of Germany.

World Memory Sports Council founder Tony Buzan said Pacquiao is nominated being intelligent not only in sports but in other fields like business and politics.

“We like him to represent the Filipino people because we want him to become the inspiration of Filipino students,” said Buzan as quoted by Filipino memory arbiters Tito and Anne Cadiz.

Meanwhile, host China, Germany and United Kingdom are in a tight battle for the gold medal in the World Memory Championship which attracted 150 competitors from 22 countries.

At press time, the Philippine team of Johann Randall Abrina and Roberto Racasa was at eighth.