PSA names five women as Athletes of the Year

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 03:19 PM Merck Maguddayao

It's the year of women athletes last 2009.

The Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) named five women athletes as Athletes of the Year for 2009, which will be awarded formally on March 1. They include reigning women's world pool champion Rubilen Amit, Asia's new long jump queen Marestella Torres, and the winning South East Asian (SEA) Games poomsae taekwondo trio of Rani Ann Ortega, Camille Alarilla, and Janice Lagman.

Amit won the Women's World 9-ball Championship last June, defeating then defending champion Liu Shin-Mei of Taiwan, 10-4. Together with pool legend Efren “Bata” Reyes, she also won the first World Mixed Doubles Pool Championship last month against Korea's Park Eun-Ji and Charlie Williams before winning two gold medals (9-ball and 8-ball singles) in the Laos SEA Games.

Dubbed as the new queen of Philippine track and field, Torres won the gold medal in the Asian Athletics Championships in China last November, edging world number nine Chen Yaling of China. In Laos, Torres won her third consecutive SEA Games medal, setting a new SEA Games record of 6.68 meters.

Meanwhile, Ortega, Alarilla, and Lagman put the forms event poomsae on the map of Philippine sports, winning the women's team category in the SEA Games and the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Egypt early last year.

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