4 talented athletes to get special Philippine Sportswriters Association awards

MANILA, Philippines - Four individuals who excelled in their respective sports in the year just passed will be the recipients of a special award from the Philippine Sportswriters Association in next month’s Annual Awards Night presented by Milo.

Ateneo’s Alyssa Valdez is again named season’s Ms. Volleyball, jin Jean Pierre Sabido is Mr. Taekwondo, while Tony Lascuña and Princess Superal are going to be honored as Golfers of the Year by the country’s oldest media organization in formal rites on Feb. 16.

All four are part of around 70 personalities and entities expected to share the limelight in the annual formal affair also co-presented by the Philippine Sports Commission headed by chairman Richie Garcia.

Valdez, also honored with the Ms. Volleyball award a year ago, steered the Ateneo Lady Eagles to their first ever UAAP women’s volleyball championship by overcoming rival De La Salle’s imposing thrice-to-beat advantage in the finals.

Sabido, meanwhile, distinguished himself as the most bemedaled jin last year by winning a pair of gold (individual freestyle and team) in the ninth World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, where he also emerged as MVP in the freestyle event, male category.

He also bagged a gold medal (individual freestyle) in the third Asian Taekwondo Poomsae Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Lascuña, for his part, won the ICTSI Philippine golf Tour Order of Merit crown for the third straight year after topping the annual event with total earnings of P3,181,565.

Not to be outdone, Superal set herself apart as the country’s top amateur golfer following her triumphs in the US and Southeast Asia.

The then 17-year-old ace shotmaker became the first Philippine-born player to win a United States Golf Association event when she beat three-time Women’s Mexican Amateur champion Marijosse Navarro for the US Girls Junior Championship at the Forest Highlands Golf Club in Flagstaff, Arizona.

She later teamed up with Mia Legaspi and the rest of the Philippine team as the young Filipinas upended the fancied Thais to win the Santi Cup by 13 strokes at the Empire Hotel and Country Club in Brunei.

Already named earlier by the PSA as part of its honor roll in the event which has Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), Accel, Globalport, and Rain or Shine as traditional backers are Tim Cone (Excellence in Basketball) and the 1973 Philippine men’s team (Lifetime Achievement Award).

Still to be announced is the winner of the coveted Athlete of the Year award being disputed by Daniel Caluag of cycling, pro boxing’s Donnie Nietes, and Gabriel Moreno of archery.