34th SAC-SMB AWARDS: CEBU BOXING RUMBLES ON
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 20 Apr 2016
CEBU CITY ? The longest reigning Filipino world champion Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes received another major award during the 34th Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC)-San Miguel Brewery (SMB) Sports Awards that was held Wednesday at the Robinson?s Galleria.
Nietes, whose reign in the WBO 105 lb. and 108 lb. divisions has now spanned over eight and a half years, is also recognized by Ring magazine as the world junior flyweight champion.
The 33 year old Nietes, who fights out of the ALA gym of Cebu, won the SAC-SMB Athlete of the Year honors last year.
This year however, the Athlete of the Year award went to multi-awarded long distance runner Mary Joy Tabal. Tabal won a SEA games women?s marathon silver, first place in the national Milo marathon and impressive showings in Hong Kong, Singapore and Los Angeles.
There were thirteen other boxers who received citations for their achievements on the national and international rings.
For amateur boxing ? Kevin Jake Cataraja was cited for winning the PRISAA best boxer award last year. Cataraja, an ALA boxer, is now an up and coming professional.
Other amateur fighters who captured golds in national tournaments were John Ni?o Vega, Vicente Seos-e, Eduardo Jimenez, Alexander Bonito, Berland Robles and Dominic Casa?ares.
Donnie Nietes (C) poses with Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC) members, L-R: Dong Secuya of Philboxing, Dale Rosal of Cebu Daily News, Girlie Garces of the sponsoring San Miguel Brewery, Rico Navarro of The Freeman and the outgoing president of SAC, Lemuel Maglinte of The Freeman, Mike Limpag of Sun Star and Dr Rene Bonsubre of Philboxing.
Citations for professional boxing were awarded to:
Jason Pagara (ALA gym) ? WBO International junior welterweight title
Mark Magsayo (ALA gym) ? IBF and WBO Youth featherweight titles
Albert Pagara (ALA gym) ? WBO and IBF Intercontinental superbantamweight titles
Arthur Villanueva (ALA gym) - WBC International super flyweight title
Kenny Demecillo (Omega gym) ? WBA Oceania and WBF Asia-Pacific bantamweight titles
Marlon Tapales (RWS gym)? for winning his WBO eliminator against in Japan for the right to challenge WBO bantamweight world champion Pungluang Sor Singyu.
The SAC-SMB Cebu Sports Awards is the Oscar?s of Cebu sports. Every year, Cebuano and Cebu-based athletes are honored for their achievements. One of the unique features of this event is that student athletes get to mingle and receive their awards with star professionals and seasoned international campaigners.
The Orlacsan Award was given to Momoko Shimoda (Shigeru Shimoda) while the Sportsman of the Year was awarded to Ricky Ballesteros.
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