SCOOP to honor best athletes in awards rites

Twelve more athletes and a team are to receive recognition under four different categories during the SCOOP (Sports communicators Organization of the Philippines) annual Awards Night set Feb. 13 at the Pantalan Seafoods Restaurant at the Luneta.

Five of the recipients – boxers Romeo Brin and Rodel Mayo, judoka John Baylon, karateka Gretchen Malalad and the Philippine traditional boat race team – will be accorded the Gawad Ng Katapangan in the Badge of Courage category for displaying extraordinary bravery that is the true mark of a Filipino in winning their respective events in the different international sporting arenas.

Brin, plucked out of retirement to carry the country’s colors in the recent Asian amateur Boxing Championships in Puerto Princesa City, won the gold medal in the welterweight division to earn an unprecedented third straight Olympic Games stint.

Mayo captured the Orient-Pacific Boxing federation minimumweight crown via a first round knockout victory over Japanese Genki Ohnaka but not after defying all odds, including traveling for four straight days from hometown Cebu City, arriving in Tokoyama on the eve of his 12-round title fight.

Malalad, a beauty contestant and a model when not fighting, recovered from a fall due to foul blow in the first round of her gold medal bout and went on to win the 68-kilogram kumite in karate with her lip bloodied in last year’s 22nd Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.

Also receiving the Gawad Katapangan in the Awards night, sponsored by San Miguel Corp., the Philippine Sports Commission, Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, Pantalan Restaurant and Photokina Marketing, is Baylon, who brought home his sixth straight gold medal, also in the last SEA Games.

Also supporting the Awards Night are Airfreight 2001, the Philippine Olympic Committee, Samsung electronics Philippines and the Philippine Basketball League.

The 25-man RP TRB squad was also chosen to receive the Gawad Katapangan on the strength of its gold medal and silver medal finish in the 500-meter and 1,000-meter races also in Vietnam despite crossing the finish line with its boat half-capsized.

Trackster Eduardo Buenavista and Glenn Aguilar will both be bestowed the Gawad Bukas-Landas or the Vic Villafrancia Memorial Trailblazers Awards. Buenavista topped the 10,000 run in record time, also in the biennial meet, while Aguilar emerged the first Filipino to win the overall title in the six-leg Federacion Internationale Motorcyclists.

grandmaster Eugene Torre ended more than a decade title draught by winning the 15th Leuven Open Chess Championship in Belgium in a feat that earned for him the Gawad Ningning for brilliancy, the same honor accorded to Asian Zonal champion Ronald Pableo.

Four young Filipino campaigners, all in their teens – Jayvie Agojo, Rachelle Ann Cabral, Marichu Gandionco and Kenneth San Andres – will be honored with the Gawad Kabataan (Sim Sotto Memorial Youth Award) each.

Agojo topped the 16-18 girls’ division crowd of the Optimist International Junior golf championship. Cabral helped the women’s team rule the team competition. Gandioneo won a silver medal in tennis, both in Vietnam, and San Andres became the first Filipino to bag the junior division trophy in the FIM series.

The 13 honorees will join the 11 other major awardees, including former International Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion Manny Pacquiao, who is to receive the highest recognition SCOOP is handing out – the Gawad Pancho Villa Barako in honor of the first Filipino boxing champion and Hall of Famer.

The other major awardees to receive the Gawad Kahusayan in the Ten Outstanding Pilipino Sportsmen (TOPS) category are bowlers Christian Jan Suarez, the reigning world Cup titlist, the RP three-woman team (Lisa Clutario, Lisa del Rosario and Cecilia Yap) and fellow world champs Arvin Ting and Rene Catalan in wushu and the Bacolod City girls softball team.

included in this category are SEA Games multi-gold medal winners Mark Paragua in chess, Marcus Valda in wrestling, Rexel Ryan Fabriga in diving, Willie Wang in wushu and Lee Van Corteza in billiards and snooker.