Amit, Torres, world champ jins named top awardees: Women power sweeps PSA

MANILA, Philippines - They stood out in a field long dominated by men. And for their exploits in the SEA Games and the World Championships, five courageous ladies will share the spotlight as 2009 Athletes of the Year during the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Awards Night on March 1 at the Manila Hotel.

Pool whiz Rubilen Amit, long jump queen Marestella Torres and the charming poomsae team of Rani Ann Ortega, Camille Alarilla and Janice Lagman came through with victories that easily warmed the hearts and brought significant joy to a country of 90 million people.

Sharing the stage with them on this big night that gathers the top sport achievers for the year 2009 is boxing superstar and top pound-for-pound fighter Manny Pacquiao, who had been earlier named as the PSA Athlete of the Decade.

Since it began compiling its list of Athlete of the Year winners in 1981, this marked only the first time that an all-female selection has been given the highest honor by the country’s sportswriting fraternity.

None among the five has also been bestowed the rare distinction of being Athlete of the Year during previous stagings of the event presented by Smart, Pacific Online System Corp. and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

There was no doubt, all of them truly deserved it.

Amit stamped her class last year as the best woman billiard player not only in the country, but in the world by ruling the World 10-Ball Championship behind a 10-4 shellacking of world 9-ball titlist Liu Shin Mei of Chinese-Taipei.

The 27-year-old native of Cebu later partnered up with billiards legend Efren “Bata” Reyes to top the inaugural World Mixed Doubles Classic by beating the Korean pair of Charlie Williams and Eun Ji Park in the race-to-nine final, 9-7.

For an encore, the protégée of sportsman Aristeo “Putch” Puyat won two gold medals in the 25th SEA Games in Laos, ruling both the women’s 9-ball (7-3 over Charlene Tsai of Singapore) and 8-ball (5-1 over Angeline Ticoal of Indonesia) singles, emerging as one of only four Filipino double-gold medalists in the meet together with swimmer Miguel Molina, netter Cecil Mamiit and golfer Chihiro Ikeda.

Over at the track, Torres made her presence felt with her stunning gold medal stint in the Asian Athletics Championships on a wet, rainy day in November in Guangdong, China.

Her golden leap of 6.51 meters paled in comparison to her personal best of 6.63, but enough to win the event and beat the likes of silver medal winner Chen Ya Ling of China, ranked world no. 9 and Asia’s no. 2, and bronze medalist Sachiko Masumi of Japan, the top women’s long jumper in Asia.

The victory was the first for the Philippines in an Asian-level athletics competition since former Asian sprint queen Lydia de Vega won the 100 meter and 200 meter gold in the 1987 Singapore edition of the meet, then known as the 4As.

It turned out the party had just began for Torres.

A month after, the 28-year-old Filipina reinforced her claim as the undisputed long jump queen in the Southeast Asian region by winning the event for the third straight time.

And she did it in record-breaking fashion.

Torres leapt to 6.68 meters during the Laos SEA Games, breaking the 20-year-old mark of 6.52 meters set by compatriot Elma Muros-Posadas when Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia hosted the sports conclave in 1989.

And the lovely poomsae team?

Proving they’re more than just good looks, Lagman (22, a registered nurse), Ortega (23, a sports science graduate) and Alarilla (22, an economics graduate) shot their way to the gold medal of the team event in the 4th World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship in Cairo, Egypt, besting entries from Vietnam, the host country, and Spain.

Poomsae or form is a taekwondo discipline similar to kata in karatedo and the victory of the three lovely young ladies was a breakthrough gold for a Filipino jin team.

From Cairo, the group would stretch its exploits to Laos where Alarilla, Ortega and Lagman eventually accounted for the country’s initial gold medal in the SEA Games when they beat Thailand for the title.