Three vie for PSA Athlete of Year award

MANILA, Philippines - The best and the brightest in 2014 – led by the Athlete of the Year – will hog the limelight anew when the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) holds its Annual Awards Night on Feb. 16 next year.

Three athletes in different sports make up the short list of candidates for the highest honors in the annual awards presented by Milo. They are Daniel Caluag of cycling, Donnie Nietes of professional boxing and Gabriel Moreno of archery.

Caluag won for the Philippines its only gold medal in BMX of cycling in the Incheon 17th Asian Games last October, a feat that saved what could have been an extremely disappointing performance by the country in the Olympics of Asia.

Nietes, meanwhile, is bound to surpass the record set by the late Gabriel “Flash” Elorde as the longest reigning Filipino world champion as he has been undefeated the past seven years during his reign as minimumweight and light-flyweight champion, respectively.

Moreno, on the other hand, won gold in the mixed team event of archery in the Youth Olympic Games in partnership with China’s Li Jiaman. He became the first Filipino to win a gold in the meet.

Major awardees and citations will also be given out to athletes and organizations who did the country proud in the year about to end.

The PSA, the oldest media organization in the country which turns 66 years old in 2015, will also hand out the President’s Award as well as the Executive of the Year, National Sports Association of the Year, the Tony Siddayao Awards for outstanding athletes aged 17 or younger, Lifetime Achievement Award, Sports Patron of the Year, Posthumous, and the Milo Outstanding Athletes (boys and girls).