It is customary to put highlight inspiring stories in the sports especially for sports lover Filipinos across the world.
The Philippine Business and News would like to focus on Top 5 Stories that give honor and pride to the country in the international scene.
While we do not downplay the local sports that became talk of the town such as the UP Fighting Maroons entering into finals after 32 years, and the back-to-back champion of Ateneo in UAAP and the “three-peat” of San Beda Red Lions in NCCA. They are all exciting and fun, no doubt about it.
But due to the wider audience of our online publication with 194 countries reach, we would like to feature the sports that we deem newsworthy in the year 2018 and have proven our sports prowess and capabilities in the international community.
Here are the top 5 yearend stories for Philippines sports:
Top 1: Philippine Dragon Boat Team became the overall championship in the World Championships at Georgia.
The ICF World Dragon Boat Championships held at Gainesville, Georgia brought a record-setting 5-gold and 2-silver haul.
Under the tutelage of the President of the Philippine Canoe Kayak Dragon Boat Federation Jonne Go and Head Coach Len Escollante, and their well disciplined team members, the unsung heroes with limited fund tearfully recalled the hard work, sacrifice and discipline that each and every one invested to ensure that they will bring honor to the country when they were practicing two to three times a day at Laguna de Bay. They dubbed their international dragon boat competition as #LabanParaSaBayan.
Top 2: Hidilyn Diaz’ delivered the first gold in 18th Asian Games in Jakarta
Capturing the women’s 53-kilograms event, Diaz outclassed Turkmenistan’s Kristina Shermetova (206kg) and Thailand’s Surodchana Khambao (201kg), and had a total lift of 207kg which brought the first gold for Philippines in the 2018 games.
Top 3: Fil-Am MMA Champion Brandon Vera as KOs Italian foe in just 1 minute
Admitting that his Italian challenger Mauro Cerrili is a “dangerous fighter”, Vera retained his ONE World heavyweight belt dubbed as “No Sweat” knockout when he delivered his fatal left hook that landed on Italian’s jaw that prompted the referee to stop the game.
Top 4: Eduard “The Landslide” Folayang regained his ONE Lightweight World Title
Former high school teacher turned mix martial art won a unanimous decision after a massive strike against Singaporean Amir Khan.
Folayang, a native of Baguio is no doubt the greatest Filipino mixed martial artist of all time. His first fight started on June 17, 2010 when he defeated Slovakian fighter Egon Racz in a Martial Combat.
Top 5: The Pacman returns, TKOs Matthysse and the new WBA Welterweight Champion