A huge toast is in store for the country’s best-ever showing in the Olympics and to the rest of the top performers of 2024 on Monday with the much-awaited staging of the San Miguel Corporation-Philippine Sportswriters Association (SMC-PSA) Awards Night at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel.
Gymnast sensation Carlos Yulo is the star of the night as the well-deserved recipient of the Athlete of the Year award from the country’s oldest media organization under the leadership of its president Nelson Beltran, sports editor of The Philippine Star.
Yulo, the 24-year-old pride of Leveriza, Manila, carved out the Philippines’ first ever double gold medal during the Paris Olympics in a fitting highlight to the country’s centennial participation in the quadrennial showcase.
The historic feat deserves no less than a grand celebration in the biggest PSA Awards Night ever mounted by the sports writing community and co-presented by ArenaPlus, Cignal, and MediaQuest.
Awards proper starts at 7 p.m.
With the theme ‘Golden Year, Golden Centenary,’ the formal event that counts a total of 117 awardees, will have our treasured Olympians serving as the special guest of honor and to be recognized for their hard work and sacrifices in representing the Philippines at the highest level of sports.
Members of the Philippine team to the Olympics in the last 60 years will be represented by their respective batches and join the 2024 Olympic contingent to the French capital, along with the Paris Paralympic Games delegation in sharing center stage during the program made possible by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, MILO, PLDT/Smart, and Senator Bong Go, with support from the PBA, PVL, 1-Pacman Party List, Rain or Shine, Akari, and AcroCity.
Former Senator Freddie Webb, who played for the men’s basketball team in the 1968 (Mexico) and 1972 (Munich) Olympics, is the keynote speaker and will speak on behalf of all the Olympians.
Legendary weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, the Filipino athlete who broke the barrier when she gifted the country its first ever Olympic gold in Tokyo five years ago, will have her special moment in the star-studded affair as she will be formally enshrined in the PSA Hall of Fame. The 33-year-old Diaz is a four-time winner of the Athlete of the Year (2016, 2018, 2021, 2022)
Boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas will also be feted with the President’s Award for their bronze medal achievements in the Paris Games, while POC President Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino is the 2024 Executive of the Year for his continued hands-on leadership in guiding Philippines sports to bigger breakthrough and greater glory as magnified by the two golds and two bronzes in last year’s Olympics.
Meanwhile, the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines is hailed as the National Sports Association (NSA) of the Year, and joins June Mar Fajardo and Kevin Quiambao (Mr. Basketball), Jia Morado-De Guzman (Ms. Volleyball), Rubilen Amit and Carlo Biado (billiards), Melvin Jerusalem and Pedro Taduran (boxing), Daniel Quizon (chess), Rianne Malixi (golf), Tachiana Mangin (taekwondo), and jockey John Alvin Guce, Batang Manda, and Benhur Abalos (horse racing), who will all be handed out with Major Awards.
Also included in the year’s PSA honor roll are the NCAA and MVP Group of Companies for Special Award, 19 citations, and seven recipients of the Tony Siddayao Awards.
All awardees, officials, and guests who failed to personally get their invitations may claim it at the registration desk of the Centennial Hall of the same venue.
ONE of the fervent supporters of Philippine sports through the years won’t be missed out in the coming celebration of the San Miguel Corporation-Philippine Sportswriters Association (SMC-PSA) Awards Night at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel.
The MVP Group of Companies is going to be recognized with a special award in the Jan. 27 formal proceedings for its unending assistance to Filipino athletes, best magnified no less by the historic two gold medals the country won in the Paris Olympics through gymnast Carlos Yulo.
Under the stewardship of businessman and sports patron Manny V. Pangilinan, the corporation had been at the forefront of backing the training and participation of almost majority of the Filipino contingent in the French capital, including Yulo and the two other Filipino medal winners in boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas.
Along with the MVP Group, the 100-year-old National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) will also be handed out with a special award by the oldest media organization in the country under the leadership of Nelson Beltran, sports editor of The Philippine Star, during the traditional awards night co-presented by ArenaPlus, Cignal, and MediaQuest.
Similarly, Pilipinas Live is set for a recognition in the event that counts the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, MILO, PLDT/Smart, and Senator Bong Go as among its major backers together with the PBA, PVL, 1-Pacman Party List, Rain or Shine, Akari, and AcroCity.
The top sports streaming platform by Cignal will be cited for its digital innovation of providing Filipinos in the country and around the world an entirely new experience seeing live and on-demand Filipino sports contents in their social network.
That brings to a total of 19 personalities and entities who are in the list of citations during the award proper.
Through the MVP Sports Foundation, the MVP Group has been backing various athletes and Nationals Sports Associations (NSAs) as part of its commitment to uplift Philippine sports such as basketball, boxing, gymnastics, badminton, taekwondo, esports, rugby, among others.
But its support isn’t constrained to just funding athletes and sports federations, it also provides unmatched live coverage as it did in the Paris Olympics through its multiple platforms through Cignal TV, with PLDT and Smart as official broadcast partners and MPIC and Meralco as official broadcast sponsors.
Aside from Pilipinas Live, citations will also be extended to the Philippine dragon boat team, Philippine Volcanoes, Creamline volleyball team, weightlifters Angeline Colonia and Lovely Inan, jiu-jitsu’s Isabella Joseline Butler, powerlifters Reggie Ramirez and Jessa Mae Tabuan, pool players Johann Chua and Albert James ‘AJ’ Manas, gymnast Carl Eldrew Yulo, chess player Ruelle Canino, table tennis bet Kheith Rhynne Cruz, bowler Marc Dylan Custodio, cyclist Mark John Galedo, the Philippine baseball team, Centennial 7, and Ramon ‘Tats’ Suzara.
A three-time jiu-jitsu world champion and a gold winner in the World Wushu Championships are some of the prominent recipients making up the Tony Siddayao Awards in Monday’s San Miguel Corporation-Philippine Sportswriters Association (SMC-PSA) Awards Night at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel.
Aleia Aielle Aguilar and Alexander Gabriel Delos Reyes lead the compact list of athletes to be recognized with the award named after the late former Manila Standard sports editor, Antonio ‘Tony’ Siddayao, regarded as the Dean of Philippine sports writing.
The five other Siddayao awardees during the Jan. 27 formal affair presented by ArenaPlus, Cignal, and MediQuest are fencer Sophia Shekaina Catantan, swimmers Jamesray Mishael Ajido and Behrouz Mohammad Mojdeh, along with wrestlers Paul Sondrie Capinig and Marian Grace Balisme.
All Siddayao awardees will also be given medals and jackets provided by MILO.
Grandmaster Wesley So, basketball star Kiefer Ravena, Olympians Miguel Tabuena and Dottie Ardina, along with Olympic bronze medalist Eumir Marcial are some of the past recipients of the honor for young achievers given out during the traditional awards night supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, MILO, PLDT/Smart, and Senator Bong Go, with backing by the PBA, PVL, 1-Pacman Party List, Rain or Shine, Akari, and AcroCity.
Aguilar, the charming daughter of Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) founder and president of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines Alvin Aguilar, became a three-time world champion at age 7 when she bagged the gold in the 22kg class of the World Festival Jiu-Jitsu Championships in Abu Dhabi.
Similarly winning the gold in the 9th World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei was the 17-year-old Delos Reyes, who ruled the boys’ taijishan event.
Catantan, the 13-year-old sister of Olympian Sam Catantan, did the same in the 5th Southeast Asia Pacific Fencing Championship by netting the gold in the junior women’s foil individual event.
Ajido and Mojdeh made their presence felt in the pool, ditto with Balisme and Capinig in the wrestling mat.
Ajido topped the boys’ 12-14 100m butterfly in the 11th Asian Age Group Swimming Championships at the New Clark City Aquatics Center in Capas, Tarlac, while Mojdeh, from the family of swimming champions, strung up a number of medals including the gold in the 200m backstroke of the Asian Open School Invitational Long Course Swimming Championships in Bangkok, Thailand.
For his part, Capinig triumphed in the Southeast Asia Oceania Wrestling Championships in Thailand by copping the gold in the 51kg freestyle, even as Balisme bagged the gold in the 61kg women’s freestyle of the same tournament.
A touch of nostalgia shrouds the San Miguel Corporation-Philippine Sportswriters Association (SMC-PSA) Awards Night as Filipinos who represented flag and country in the Olympics will be given tribute in one of the special highlights of the Jan. 27 presentation at the grand ballroom of the Manila Hotel.
Members of the Philippine contingent to both the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games are going to be recognized for flying the country’s red, white, and blue proud and mighty during the 2024 edition of the Olympiad in the French capital.
And in observance of the country’s century of participation in the quadrennial showcase, beloved members of Philippine teams to the Olympics in the last 60 years will join their Paris counterparts in what is the biggest Awards Night ever by the nation’s oldest media organization headed by its president Nelson Beltran, sports editor of The Philippine Star.
Previous Olympic teams will have their respective representatives per batch as distinguished by the Philippine Olympians Association.
First ever Filipino double gold medal winner Carlos Yulo and fellow Paris Olympic medalists Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas are going to be honored with the highest awards in the formal affair co-presented by ArenaPlus, Cignal, and MediaQuest.
Yulo of course, is the recipient of the Athlete of the Year, while major awards will be handed out to both Petecio and Villegas during the star-studded gathering supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, MILO, PLDT/Smart, Senator Bong Go, and Januarius Holdings, with backing from the PBA, PVL, 1-Pacman Party List, Rain or Shine, Akari, and AcroCity.
The country’s breakthrough gold medalist in the Olympics, Hidilyn Diaz, is to be recognized separately as she is set to be enshrined in the PSA Hall of Fame.
Comprising the Philippine team to the Paris Games are EJ Obiena, Lauren Hoffman, John Cabang Tolentino, Carlo Paalam, Eumir Marcial, Hergie Bacyadan, Samantha Catantan, Bianca Pagdanganan, Dottie Ardina, Aleah Finnegan, Emma Malabuyo, Levi Jung-Ruivivar, Kiyomi Watanabe, Joanie Delgaco, Kayla Sanchez, Jarold Hatch, Elreen Ando, John Ceniza, and Vanessa Sarno.
On the other hand, the compact six-man Paralympic team is composed of Agustina Bantiloc, Jerrold Mangliwan, Cendy Asusano, Ernie Gawilan, Angel Otom, and Allain Ganapin.
Meanwhile, previous Olympic teams and their representatives include Mildred Canete (1964 Tokyo), Ernesto Bren and Jaime Mariano (1968 Mexico), Freddie Webb, Marte Samson, Ricardo Fortaleza, and Gerardo Rosario (1972 Munich), Reynaldo Fortaleza (1976 Montreal), Christine Jacob Sandejas (1984 Los Angeles), Akiko Thomson Guevara, Stephen Fernandez, Edgardo Maerina, Benjamin McMurray, Gregorio Colonia, and Manuel Monsour del Rosario (1988 Seoul), Roel Velasco, Isidro Vicera, Juan Miguel Torres, Jaime Recio, Ed Lasquete, Walter Torres, and Beatriz Lucero (1992 Barcelona).
Representing the 1996 Atlanta batch are Mansueto Velasco Jr., Elias Recaido, and Amparo Lim, Jenny Guerrero, Roberto Cruz, Donald Geisler, Jasmin Strachan Simpao, Benjamin Tolentino, and Marie Antoinette Leviste for 2000 Sydney, Raphael Matthew Chua and Jethro Dionisio for 2004 Athens, Eric Ang, and Marestella Torres Sunang for 2008 Beijing.
The rest are Jessie Lacuna, Rene Herrera, Jasmine Alkhaldi (2012 London), Kirstie Elaine Alora, Mary Joy Tabal, Charly Suarez, and Rogen Ladon (2016 Rio De Janeiro), and Cris Marasigan Niervaez, and Kurt Barbosa (2020 Tokyo).
FOR bringing pride and glory to the country with every lift she did in an outstanding sporting journey, a weightlifting icon is set for enshrinement in the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Hall of Fame.
Hidilyn Diaz, the humble lady from Zamboanga City responsible for charting the name of the Philippines in the gold medal table of the Olympics after nearly a century, will be bestowed with the distinguished accolade during the San Miguel Corporation-PSA Awards Night at the Manila Hotel on January 27.
The 33-year-old lifter is just a few years removed from her historic feat of giving the country the breakthrough gold in the Olympiad during the 2020 Tokyo Games in what served as the highlight of a stellar career that had its roots in the small barangay of Mampang.
But the impact brought about by her Olympic success and other significant victories in the international front made her deserving to be enshrined in the PSA Hall of Fame alongside the greatest athletes in Philippine sports.
In what is the grandest Awards Night ever by the country’s oldest media organization headed by its president Nelson Beltran, sports editor of The Philippine Star, Diaz will stand side by side with first ever Filipino Olympic double gold medalist Carlos Yulo as they share center stage in the formal affair co-presented by ArenaPLus, Cignal, and MediaQuest.
Yulo, 24, is the winner of the coveted Athlete of the Year honor.
The grand celebration backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, MILO, PLDT/Smart, Senator Bong Go, and Januarius Holdings, with support from the PBA, PVL, 1-Pacman Party List, Rain or Shine, AcroCity, and Akari marks the first time the country’s two Olympic champions will be in the limelight together.
Diaz is the latest legendary athlete to be elevated in the Hall of Fame by the country’s sports writing fraternity since the late track and field grate Lydia De Vega in 2022.
Others enshrined in the PSA ‘Hall’ were bowlers Paeng Nepomuceno and Bong Coo, chess grandmaster Eugene Torre, pool idol Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes, the late FIDE president Florencio Campomanes, and the eminent boxer Manny Pacquiao.
Diaz virtually grew in the eyes of Filipino sports fans.
The daughter of a tricycle driver who turned into farming and fishing, she started lifting weights at the age of nine by using makeshift barbels, eventually joining her first major competition in the 2002 Batang Pinoy, before becoming a member of the national team two years later at the age of 13.
She won her first medal – a bronze – in the 2007 Nakhonratchasima Southeast Asian Games as a 16-year-old lass, and a year after, competed in her very first Olympic in the 2008 Beijing Games as a wild card entry. She also qualified in the 2012 London Games, but for the second straight time, came home empty handed.
It wasn’t until the 2016 edition of the Summer Games in Rio De Janeiro when Diaz, an Air Force officer, finally scored a breakthrough by winning the silver medal in the women’s 53kg category, ending the country’s medal-less campaign for two decades in what proved to be a prelude to a historic golden feat in Tokyo four years after.
One of only four Filipino Olympic multi-medalists aside from Yulo, Nesthy Petecio, and the late Teofilo Yldefonso, Diaz also won gold medals in the World Championships, Asian Championships, Asian Games, and the SEA Games.