Athletes and sports leaders who joined the great beyond last year will be remembered in the SMC-PSA (Philippine Sportswriters Association) Annual Awards Night on Feb. 26 at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel.
Olympians Ian Lariba, Danny Florencio, and Leopoldo Cantacio along with former PBA Commissioner and Chairman Rey Marquez are among those to be paid homage by the country’s sportswriting fraternity in the special event presented by MILO, Cignal TV, and the Philippine Sports Commission.
Lariba was the country’s first female table tennis player to qualify in the Olympics, representing the Philippines during the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Games, while Florencio, the electrifying, high-flying guard from University of Santo Tomas, was part of the last men’s basketball team to compete in the Olympiad during the 1972 Games in Munich.
Cantancio, from the boxing hotbed of Bago, Negros Occidental, was a two-time Olympian who saw action in the 1984 (Los Angeles) and 1988 (Seoul, South Korea) Summer Games.
Marquez meanwhile, was the fourth commissioner of Asia’s first ever play-for-pay league, who also served as a chairman of the PBA Board representing Formula Shell.
Backing the annual affair are the Philippine Basketball Association, Mighty Sports, SM Prime Holdings, Tapa King, Rain or Shine, NorthPort, and Chooks To Go.
