SCOOP rites to honor century's sports heroes

MANILA, Philippines - The Sports Communicators Organization of the Philippines (Scoop) will hold the Century Sports Awards which will highlight the heroics of the top 100 athletes the country had produced since organized sports was established through the creation of the now-defunct Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation in 1911.

The Awards Night will virtually trace the history of the Filipino athletes’ feats from the time Regino Ylanan won three gold medals in the inaugural staging of the Far Eastern Games to the present era of Manny Pacquiao. From among the list of 100 sports heroes one will be chosen the “Greatest Filipino Athlete of the Century.”

The Scoop officials, composed of the association’s past presidents – Beth Celis, Al Mendoza, Barry Pascua, Jimmy Cantor, Andy Sevilla, Ron delos Reyes and Bill Velasco, senior sports editors and leading sports columnists like Quinito Henson, Ronnie Nathanielsz, Philip Juico, Recah Trinidad, Tito Talao, Dennis Principe and Reuel Vidal, will select the finest athletes in 100 years in Philippine sports. 

The night will also serve as a reminder of, among others, Pancho Villa’s becoming the first Filipino and Asian to win a world boxing championship by annexing the flyweight crown in 1923; and Teofilo Yldefonso’s delivering the country its first Olympic medal, a bronze, in the 1928 Games, which he repeated four years later, thus making him the only Filipino athlete to win a pair of Olympic medals.

Long jumper Simeon Toribio and boxer Jose “Cely” Villanueva also joined Yldefonso in giving the country its finest moment in the Olympics by completing a three-bronze medal harvest in 1932; and bowler Paeng Nepomuceno, who won four World Cup titles. 

Anthony Villanueva, son of Cely, also gave the country its first Olympic silver medal, also in boxing, in 1964 with Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco duplicating the feat 32 years later; Gabriel “Flash” Elorde also emerged as the world longest junior-lightweight titleholder for seven years; and Bong Coo, another World Cup winner, also became the winningest Filipino athlete in the Asian Games with five gold medals. 

Also expected to make in the elite list are Lydia de Vega-Mercado, the first woman athlete to win the centerpiece 100 meters in the Asian Games, Inocencia Solis, the first Filipina to be crowned Asia’s fastest woman, and Mona Sulaiman, the Games’ 100 and 200 meters gold medalists who actually won three medals, including a bronze in shot put.

For winning the Formula One Macau Grand Prix back-to-back in the 60s, car racer Arsenio “Dodjie’ Laurel will also be honored along with Jethro Dionisio, the only man to win the World Speed Shooting championship (Steel Challenge), Salvador del Rosario,the only Filipino to have won the world weightlifting crown, and Arrienne Cerdena, Olympic gold medalist in the 1988 Games when bowling was a demonstration sport.