Stars outside SEA Games hailed

Outside Team Philippines, which won the overall crown in the recent Southeast Asian Games, there was another group of Filipino athletes that brought so much pride, honor and glory to the country in 2005.

And as the country kisses the year goodbye, The STAR, in its own little way, pays tribute to these fine athletes who delivered the goods on the boxing ring, billiards hall and the golf course.

While there was no title at stake, Manny Pacquiao’s sensational sixth-round knockout of Mexican Hector Velasquez on Sept. 11 in Los Angeles was definitely worth all those headlines.

On that same night at the packed Staples Center in downtown LA, full-blooded Filipinos Brian Viloria and Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista shared the limelight with their own KO victories over seasoned rivals.

The picture of Viloria, a Hawaiian on paper, with the large Philippine flag all over his body will be hard to forget as his swift first-round TKO of the fancied Eric Ortiz. Viloria was a big hit among Filipino fans when he flew into the country days after that victory.

Bautista, the boyish pride of Bohol, is definitely going places. A day before Christmas, he emerged victorious once more, beating Mexico’s Gerardo Espinoza in their eight-round bout at the Sycuan Resort and Casino in El Cajon, California.

Pacquiao is hoping that the victory over the rugged Velasquez would serve him well as he moves closer to the highly awaited rematch with Mexican Erik Morales who dealt the Filipino boxing hero a bitter loss last March.

In the run-up to his latest match, Pacquiao became the first Filipino to throw a ceremonial pitch in a Major League game in the United States. He described the experience as "once in a lifetime."

The rematch is set Jan. 21, or three weeks from now, at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Again, the entire country will rally behind the boxing multi-millionaire from Mindanao.

Pacquiao is hoping to start the year with another big bang.

Also in September, as the weather begins to turn cold, Filipino-Canadian Alex Pagulayan, known in the world pool circuit as "The Lion" topped the US Open where 250 players competed.

Pagulayan, who speaks fluent Tagalog, defeated another Filipino, the fabled Amang Parica, in the finals, 11-6, to take home the winner’s purse of $40,000.

The victory did serve him well in the SEA Games where he won three gold medals, two of them in team events. Only three others won three golds for Team Philippines — diver Sheila Mae Perez, swimmer Miguel Molina and rower Benjie Tolentino.

The legendary Efren "Bata" Reyes skipped the SEA Games to give the others a chance, and it proved to be a wise move as he swept the opposition in the IPT King of the Hill Shootout 8-Ball Championship in Orlando, Florida.

The victory was worth $200,000 or roughly P10.8 million for the country’s lovable billiards king who just had his eyes lasered back to "20-20" a few weeks before the money game.

In golf, Jennifer Rosales also made her fans rejoice when she ruled the SBS Open in Kahuku, Hawaii early in the year.

Rosales, whose trendy style has caught the eyes of her peers as much as her game, bested a field that included teen sensation Michelle Wie for the win worth $150,000.

With three top 10 finishes to go, the tanned Filipina beauty raked in a total of $514,279 or P27.7 million the past season. She definitely enjoyed every minute of her "shop-till-you-drop" mode when off the course.

Of course there were countless others who fought well for the Philippines in the international arena, and the countless others who shone in their respective field of events in local soil.

They all deserve the credit just as much as Pacquiao, Pagulayan, Reyes and Rosales do.